WELLINGTON, Jan. 9 (Xinhua) -- Belgian Yanina Wickmayer toppled top seed Flavia Pennetta of Italy 6-3 and 6-2 to claim her third WTA title of the Auckland Classic tennis tournament on Saturday.

    Wickmayer was only granted a wild card by tournament director Brenda Perry when a Belgian court overturned a one-year ban last month after she failed to notify the doping authority of her location for out-of-competition drug testing.

    "It was a really tough time for me," Wickmayer said of her exile from the courts until her appeal was upheld, "it was tough but it made me mentally strong so I'm happy to have been on court this week."

    The 20-year-old made double faults on the first service point of the match and faced a 1-3 deficit in the first set, before she exploited her powerful serve and grouudstrokes to break the 12th-ranked Pennetta twice to go 1-0 up in 39 minutes.

    The Italian broke Wickmayer's first service game in the second set, but the Belgian continued her aggressive approach to reel off the final five games to clinch victory.