WASHINGTON, Aug 7: Frenchman Arnaud Clement captured his second title of the year by whipping British teenager Andy Murray 7-6, 6-2 to win the Legg Mason Classic on Sunday.
The 28-year-old Clement, seeded 11th and ranked 57th in the world, entered the tournament with a 12-14 record this year but won all five of his matches without losing a set.
Clement chased down a brilliant half volley by Murray and flicked it past the Briton to seal the first set tiebreak 7-3.
Murray unravelled after losing the tiebreak and was broken in his first two service games in the second set to quickly fall behind 4-0.
With a 4-0 lead, 1.72 m tall Clement motored on and served out to win the fourth title of his career.
SAN DIEGO: Maria Sharapova of Russia shocked top seed Kim Clijsters 7-5, 7-5 to win the Acura Classic on Sunday.
In grabbing her first title on North American summer hard courts, Sharapova took down reigning US Open champion Clijsters for the first time in five meetings.
Clijsters, who has been contending with a sore back, was broken four times in the first set, but continued to claw at Sharapova.
The Belgian fought off her first set point at 3-5 in a marathon rally that saw her paste a forehand crosscourt winner.
Clijsters scrapped back to 5-5, but could not maintain her momentum as Sharapova easily held to 6-5, and then broke the Belgian to win the set when the world number two committed a forehand error.
Both women stepped up their level in the second set, but Clijsters could never find the rhythm that led her to the Stanford title last week.
Sharapova easily held to lead 6-5 before Clijsters completely lost her way, committing a slew of errors to face three match points.
Sharapova missed a backhand return on the first one, but on the second, she gunned a backhand that kissed the baseline.
—Reuters
