MOSCOW: US Open champion Marin Cilic won the Kremlin Cup, beating Roberto Bautista Agut 6-4, 6-4 in Sunday’s final, while Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova claimed the women’s title.

The big-serving Croat, seeded second, broke his Spanish opponent once in each set at Moscow’s Olimpiisky arena to take his 13th career title and fourth of the season.

Cilic, who overcame a spirited challenge from Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan in the semi-final 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 on Saturday, becomes the first Croatian man to win the Moscow ATP 250 tournament since his coach Goran Ivanisevic beat Yevgeny Kafelnikov in 1996.

In Bautista Agut, Cilic faced a close friend but one he had not played competitively since an under-14 tournament 12 years ago.

The 16th-ranked Spaniard, who overcame Latvian Ernests Gulbis 6-4, 6-4 on Saturday, is now 2-2 in career finals.

Earlier on Sunday, Russian sixth seed Pavlyuchenkova defeated Romania’s Irina-Camelia Begu 6-4, 5-7, 6-1 to win the WTA title.

The 23-year-old Pavlyuchenkova won in two hours 28 minutes to record her second win over Begu, who is 61st in the WTA rankings, in as many meetings.

MOSCOW: Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova hits a return to Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania during their Kremlin Cup final on Sunday.—Reuters

She also became the fourth Russian woman in the tournament’s history to win the Kremlin Cup after Anastasia Myskina (who won it twice in 2003 and 2004, Anna Chakvetadze (2006) and Elena Dementieva (2007).

In Saturday’s semi-finals, Pavlyuchenkova dominated Czech qualifier Katerina Siniakov 6-2, 6-2 while Begu ousted another Czech player, fourth seed Lucie Safarova 7-6 (7-5), 1-6, 6-3.

MURRAY CLAIMS 30TH CAREER TITLE IN VIENnA

VIENNA: Andy Murray won his second title in three weeks after rallying to defeat David Ferrer 5-7, 6-2, 7-5 in the final of the ATP Vienna tournament.

The 11th-ranked Scot came back from 5-3 down in the final set, ending the match with his ninth ace to improved to 30-14 in career finals having also won in Shenzhen late September to end a 14-month title drought.

Murray became only the fifth still active player with 30 or more titles alongside Roger Federer (81), Rafael Nadal (64), Novak Djokovic (46) and Lleyton Hewitt (30).

The win boosts his chances of reaching the ATP World Tour finals in London next month with Murray in eighth position in the qualifying race to the prestigious season-ending event.

On Saturday, Murray defeated Serbian qualifier Viktor Troicki 6-4, 6-3 in the semi-final while Ferrer came from a break down in the final set to defeat German fourth seed Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-3, 2-6, 7-6 (7-3).

Published in Dawn, October 20th, 2014