Little beat large as Dominika Cibulkova geared up for Wimbledon by chopping down the imposing Karolina Pliskova in the Aegon International final. Cibulkova, all 5ft 3in of her, was nerveless in her first final on grass, becoming the first ever Slovakian champion at Eastbourne after beating the 6ft 1in Pliskova 7-5, 6-3 in an hour and 40 minutes.
That little slice of history was a triumph of persistence given the world No21 trailed Agnieszka Radwanska by a set and a break before their quarter-final was stopped because of bad light on Thursday night.
No one was backing the 27-year-old in advance of play resuming on Friday morning. Yet Cibulkova stunned Radwanska before thumping Mónica Puig and she maintained her level against Pliskova, absorbing the Czech’s power, negating her serve with some brilliant returns and using her guile to pull her around the court.
The nimble and wily Cibulkova, who faces Mirjana Lucic-Baroni in the first round at Wimbledon on Tuesday, took time away from the world No17 and regularly picked her off with some delicate touches.
The negatives outweighed the positives for Pliskova at the end of a strange first set. She broke three times but surprisingly dropped her serve four times. Cibulkova had a read on it by the 12th game and brought up two set points, finding a lovely angle with a drop shot. Pliskova panicked and dragged a backhand wide.
Cibulkova was often under pressure in her service games but she sensed vulnerability, breaking in the fourth game of the second set with a glorious backhand pass from left to right.
She had to save two break points before holding to lead 4-1 and held two match points at 5-3. The first went begging but it was all over when Pliskova sent a backhand wide.
