Katie Swan suffers narrow defeat to Yanina Wickmayer in Surbiton Trophy final

Yanina Wickmayer came out on top after a three-set battle with Katie Swan to win the Lexus Surbiton Trophy.

Wickmayer prevented Swan from securing the British number one spot after coming back from a set down to win 2-6 6-4 7-6 (1) weeks before both players head to Wimbledon.

The pair were not deterred by the Surbiton heat as they battled at a high intensity with lengthy exchanges which resulted in Swan taking a 4-2 lead in the first set.

And Swan’s serve proved to be a decisive weapon early on as Wickmayer struggled to deal with the 24-year-old’s precision which allowed her to be on the front foot in exchanges before she closed out the first set 6-2.

But Wickmayer began to find her feet in the second set as she jostled into a 5-4 lead, with Swan finally beginning to falter at the hands of the 33-year-old.

And the Belgian made no mistake in drawing level after she forced errors out of eighth seed Swan to close out the second set 6-4.

This came in the form of her returns, with her decision to choose placement over power proving to be a masterstroke as she firmed her grip on the tie late on.

Swan managed to take the deciding set to a tie-break but came up short after Wickmayer stormed into a 6-1 lead before she rounded off the set to be crowned champion.In a court-side interview broadcast by the LTA, Swan said: “I feel like it was a high-level match all the way through.

“It was tough because as soon as I dropped my levels slightly she was all over me and I had to maintain that for as long as I could. It was so tough but it was really high level overall.

“She is in unbelievable shape, I don’t know how she can be that good after having a baby. I think it’s incredible what she’s doing.”