Sam Stosur was on the edge of elimination but after a grueling two hours and 28 minutes on court, the Australian finally defeated Karin Knapp in a nail-biting three-setter to capture the NÜRNBERGER Gastein Ladies with a 3-6, 7-6(3), 6-2 win.

Knapp, who was fresh from her win against Sara Errani, dominated the first set and was up 5-2 serving for the match in the second. But the former US Open Champion proved her resilience and bounced back to win the second set in a tie break and eventually cruised through the third to win her second title for 2015 and eighth career overall.

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"It was a very hard match today," said Stosur as reported by the WTA website. "I was getting completely outplayed in that first set, and even though she was up in the second set too, I started to feel like I was doing a little better. Obviously she served for the match but I hung in there, got that set then played better and better from there. It's not ideal to be playing a semifinal and final in one day, a two-and-a-half-hour match in the morning then another two and a half hours in the afternoon, but unfortunately that's just what happens with the weather sometimes. And she did serve for the match, so she wasn't doing too badly either."

Indeed, Knapp's performance was too impressive to be downplayed. Earlier in the day, she beat her compatriot and the no. 1 seed Errani in outstanding fashion with the score of 7-6(4), 4-6, 7-5. And to come up with a first rate game-plan with only a few hours of rest is a tough leap to say the least. Though the Italian admitted that it wasn't easy playing a total of five hours in one day, her efforts paid off with a rise in the rankings.

Elsewhere, Lesia Tsurenko defeated Urszula Radwanska 7-5, 6-1 to capture the Istanbul Cup, her first WTA tournament title.

Radwanska had three set points in the first set but failed to capitalize, allowing the 26-year-old Ukrainian to take control of the match and win nine out of ten games for a straight set victory in just an hour and 32 minutes.

"When I saw the draw it looked tough, but I believe that if you go to a tournament you can win it," Tsurenko told Yahoo!. "You have to think like this. And I'm so happy I could win here and show good tennis."

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