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MOSCOW, Oct 7: Russia’s Yevgeny Kafelnikov landed his fifth consecutive Kremlin Cup title with a 6-4 7-5 victory over unseeded German Nicolas Kiefer on Sunday to join Bjorn Borg in the record books.
Only Borg, who won Wimbledon from 1976 to 1980, and Hungary’s Balazs Taroczy, the winner of the Hilversum tournament from 1978 to 1982, have won the same event five years in a row since tennis became professional.
Kafelnikov donated his $137,000 first prize to families of victims on the Russian plane which crashed last week in the Black Sea near his home town of Sochi.
Former Russian President Boris Yeltsin made a rare public appearance for Kafelnikov’s match.
In the women’s final fifth-seeded Yugoslav Jelena Dokic overcame an ankle sprain to crush eighth seed Elena Dementieva 6-3 6-3, preventing a Russian title double.
Dokic now moves into the world top 10 for the first time in her career. Her other title wins this year came at the Rome Masters in May and the Princess Cup in Tokyo last month.
In the opening set of the men’s final Kiefer squandered a 4-2 lead allowing the Russian to take the next four games and seal the set in 43 minutes.
In the second, the two players held serve until the 10th game when the 39th-ranked German saved two match points on his serve. In that game Kiefer had a long argument with Italian umpire Romano Grillotti after his second serve was ruled out.
Two games later, Kafelnikov clinched the match on his third attempt after one hour 43 minutes.
TOKYO: US Open champion Lleyton Hewitt demolished Switzerland’s Michel Kratochvil 6-4 6-2 in the Japan Open final Sunday for fifth title of the year.
In the women’s final, Monica Seles thrashed Tamarine Tanasugarn of Thailand 6-3 6-2 for her 50th career singles title.
Australian top seed Hewitt broke fifth seed Kratochvil in the first game of the match and twice in the second set in a dominant performance at Tokyo’s Ariake Colosseum.
Hewitt hit a series of fizzing passing shots and also produced four inch-perfect lobs as he answered Kratochvil’s all-court game with some finesse of his own.
The world number three demonstrated his fighting qualities in the eighth game of the first set when he saved three break points, the third with a running backhand pass that clipped the net cord to leave Kratochvil shaking his head.
After serving out the first set, Hewitt quickly broke for 2-1 in the second and secured a double break in the seventh game with another thumping return down the line.
Hewitt wrapped up proceedings with a service winner down the middle to extend his winning streak to 14 matches.
Hewitt picked up $115,000 after a successful first tournament in Japan.
Seles took just 64 minutes to wrap up victory against second seed Tanasugarn, who had no answer to the power and depth of the American’s groundstrokes in a one-sided final.
Seles, who earned $27,000 for winning her sixth tournament in Japan, converted just three of 13 break points.—Reuters
