0
TOKYO, Oct 5: Russian Maria Sharapova won her first WTA Tour title and men’s top seed Rainer Schuettler completed an efficient 7-6 6-2 victory over Sebastien Grosjean at the Japan Open on Sunday.
Sharapova, 16, won a tense 2-6 6-2 7-6 battle against unseeded Hungarian Aniko Kapros.
Pumping her fist after each point, Sharapova fought back from 5-2 down in the third-set tiebreak to win five successive points in a nail-biting climax.
The Russian closed out with a well placed second serve on her third match point that Kapros failed to control after two hours and 10 minutes.
A sobbing Sharapova hugged her father Yuri, who had raced on to the court to congratulate her at the end of a stamina-sapping final.
The 1.83-metre Sharapova had squandered two match points in the 10th game, putting up a weak lob on the first and hitting a backhand long on the second.
She almost suffered a meltdown during the tiebreak but the world number 48 suddenly found an extra gear.
Grunting louder with every shot, a fired-up Sharapova surged to match point again behind a string of thumping forehands.
Schuettler won his first title in two years with a convincing victory over second-seeded Frenchman Grosjean.
The German took the first-set tiebreak 7-5 and broke Grosjean in the opening game of the second set.
Australian Open runner-up Schuettler secured a double break in the seventh game to go 5-2 up and wrapped up victory on his first match point with a whipped cross-court forehand.
The top eight players qualify for the prestigious Masters Cup in Houston from November 8 to 16.
Results:
Men: 1-Rainer Schuettler (Germany) beat 2-Sebastien Grosjean (France) 7-6 (7-5) 6-2
Women 5-Maria Sharapova (Russia) beat Aniko Kapros (Hungary) 2-6 6-2 7-6 (7-5)
DENT, MYSKINA TRIUMPH
MOSCOW: America’s big-serving Taylor Dent won the title in the ATP section of the 2.3-million-dollar Kremlin Cup tennis tournament in his first appearance, beating Armenia’s Sargis Sargsian in straight sets.
Earlier Russia’s Anastasia Myskina won her second consecutive WTA title, beating Amelie Mauresmo of France 6-2, 6-4 in the women’s competition.
The 22-year-old Dent, who won the inaugural Thailand Open last week, defeated the 30-year-old veteran Sargsian 7-6 (7/5), 6-4 in their first ever meeting, to clinch his third year’s and fourth career tile.
The opponents, both unseeded here, keept their serves throughout the opening set to force a tiebreak, which Dent won 7-5 to go 1-0 up after 53 minutes on court.
In the second set Dent picked up steam to break early to grab a comfortable 3-1 lead.
Sargsian fought hard to level, but to no avail as Dent kept his advantage through to win the set and the match in 1hr 31min.
He has now won 10 successive matches on tour.
After the match Dent was awarded a silver trophy by Cartier and a 133,000-dollar cheque, with Sargsian earning 78,250 dollars.
Fourth seed Myskina, successful in Leipzig last week, was registering her first win over second-seeded Mauresmo to become the first Russian WTA player to keep the WTA trophy at home.
The pair started nervously, trading early breaks in the opening set.
But watched on by former Russian president Boris Yeltsin Myskina moved up a gear to make two more breaks to lift herself 1-0 up in 32 minutes.
In the second set Myskina, ranked 10th in the world, broke again in the fourth game to a comfortable 4-1 advantage.
The 24-year-old Mauresmo broke back in the ninth game but only to allow Myskina to break immediately again in the 10th for victory.
Results (final):
Men singles: Taylor Dent (USA) bt Sargis Sargsian (ARM) 7-6 (7/5), 6-4
Women singles: Anastasia Myskina (RUS) bt Amelie Mauresmo (FRA) 6-2, 6-4
CLEMENT WINS FINAL
METZ (France): French player Arnaud Clement won the second title of his career and his first of the year as he beat Fernando Gonzalez of Chile 6-3, 1-6, 6-3 in the final of the Moselle Open here on Sunday.
Serving strongly, Clement, the number four seed, capitalised on an error-strewn first set by Gonzalez, but the heavy-hitting Chilean hit back to dominate the second.
Clement made the decisive break in the final set at 3-2 before closing out the match 6-3.—Agencies
