October 07, 2008	Tuesday	Shawwal 7, 1429

STUTTGART, Oct 6: Serbia’s Jelena Jankovic celebrated her imminent return to the top of the world rankings with an easy 6-4, 6-3 victory over Nadia Petrova in the Stuttgart Grand Prix final on Sunday.

Second seed Jankovic, who will replace Serena Williams as world number one on Monday, took advantage of regular errors from the unseeded Russian Petrova to clinch victory in 83 minutes.

Petrova, champion at the indoor hardcourt event in 2006, played aggressively but was never able to match the consistency of Jankovic, who took the first set thanks to a single break in the Russian’s opening service game.

Petrova lost her serve early in the second, too. She broke back for 3-3 but a desperate backhand wide gave Jankovic the advantage straight back and she stormed through to win a second successive title after last week’s victory in Beijing.

“That’s two titles in two weeks and I’m back up to number one so obviously things are going pretty well for me now,”

Jankovic, who gets to choice between prize money of $98,500 or a

Porsche car, said in a courtside interview.

Petrova’s afternoon was summed up by the final game.

Serving to stay in the match, she planted an easy volley about a metre long to go 0-15 down. She was then wrong-footed by a Jankovic backhand that flew past her for 0-30.

Petrova wafted a crosscourt forehand well long to give Jankovic three match points and handed over the first of them with an awful approach that hit the top of the net.

Jankovic had not had to do anything spectacular; just keep getting the ball back and wait for the inevitable error.

“I went for every single point and tried everything,” Petrova said courtside. “I just made too many unforced errors and the key to playing Jelena is to be consistent.”

TURSUNOV TRIUMPHS

METZ (France): Russian Dmitry Tursunov clinched his fifth ATP title when he beat home favourite Paul-Henri Mathieu 7-6, 1-6, 6-4 in the final of the Metz Open on Sunday.

Tursunov, seeded fifth, prevailed after two hours and 24 minutes on his third match point. It was his second title of the year after winning in Sydney.

Fourth-seeded Mathieu threw away three set points in the opening tiebreak before Tursunov won it 8-6. The Russian inexplicably lost his concentration and allowed Frenchman Mathieu to level the match.

Tursunov, however, stepped up a gear in the decider to break in the fifth game before holding serve.—Reuters