In joint-longest WTA final of 2022, Barbora Krejcikova topples Iga Swiatek in Ostrava

WATCH: Barbora Krejcikova came from a set down to defeat world No. 1 Iga Swiatek and triumph at home in Ostrava.

Coming into Sunday's final at the Agel Open in Ostrava, Barbora Krejcikova surely knew it would take an impressive effort to topple world No. 1 Iga Swiatek and win the singles title on home soil. After all, Swiatek hadn't lost a final in more than three years, and had never lost to Krejcikova, either.

After a staggering 3 hours and 16 minutes, though, Krejcikova did just that to become the first Czech player to win the event: The 2021 Roland Garros champion came from a set down to beat Swiatek, 5-7, 7-6(4), 6-3, to win her fifth career WTA singles title, and her second in as many weeks.

It was the joint-longest WTA singles final in 2022: Angelique Kerber also topped Kaja Juvan to win on clay in Strasbourg, France, in the same amount of time. It was also Krejcikova's second win of the year that lasted more than three hours.

Most impressively, though, the win was evidence of how Krejcikova's gotten her groove back over the last two weeks.

Her early season was disrupted as a result of an elbow injury, and though she's predictably shined with Katerina Siniakova in doubles since returning—they won Wimbledon and the US Open together—her singles form since May has been patchy. But she triumphed in Tallinn last week—beating Ajla Tomljanovic, Marta Kostyuk, Beatriz Haddad Maia, Belinda Bencic and Anett Kontaveit along the way—and came from a set down to beat both Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina and Swiatek in her last two matches to take the title at home.

A big early deficit against Swiatek wasn't enough to shake her; Krejcikova trailed 5-1 in the opening set, and though her effort to complete the comeback fell short after she got even at 5-5, she saved her best for the late stages of the next two sets.

She was two points from defeat serving at 30-30 in the 12th game of the second set, but won six of the first seven points of the tiebreak to force a decider. After neither woman faced break point in the final set's first seven games, Krejcikova broke to love for an opportunity to serve out the match.

In the face of some of Swiatek's best tennis—draw-dropping shot-making helped her save five championship points—Krejcikova stood tall: She served her seventh ace on her sixth match point for victory.

Swiatek's last loss in a final was, in fact, her first appearance in one; she was beaten by Slovenia's Polona Hercog in Lugano, Switzerland in April of 2019 and won her next 10 trophies.