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INDIANAPOLIS, July 30: Russian third seed Dmitry Tursunov won his second career title with a 6-4, 7-5 victory over Frank Dancevic of Canada at the Indianapolis championship on Sunday.
The 27th-ranked Tursunov had been in two previous finals, winning the 2006 title at Mumbai and finishing runner-up at the 2006 Los Angeles tournament.
Dancevic, ranked 109, was competing in his first career tour final. Before this week the Canadian had never reached a quarter-final.
Tursunov broke serve in the third game of the first set and the 11th game of the second set to set up his victory.
“Most of all what I'm happy about is I know I can play matches when I'm not playing well and win,” Tursunov told reporters.
Suggesting that playing consistently day-in, day-out even when not playing his best tennis makes for a better player, Tursunov made a Freudian slip and said “it make me a better person.”
He then joked: “Maybe I mean a better person. I'm much prettier now. You have no idea how many girls were calling to me.”
Dancevic was vying to be the first Canadian since Greg Rusedski won the Newport 1993 and Seoul 1995 tournaments to win a tour title.
Rusedski, who became a British citizen in May 1995, was the last Canadian to reach a final.
Despite the loss, Dancevic put together an impressive performance during the week, upsetting top seed Andy Roddick in the semi-final which marked his first career victory over a top 10 player.
Dancevic also upset eighth-seed Benjamin Becker of Germany in the first round.
Tursunov had trouble with his serve and only had a 48 percent first serve percentage. However, the Russian did win all 26 points when his first serve went in.
Tursunov never offered Dancevic an opportunity to break his serve in the 77-minute match.
Tursunov broke Dancevic's serve in the third game of the first set and the 11th game of the second set.
UMAG (Croatia): Spain's Carlos Moya beat Romanian Andrei Pavel 6-4. 6-2 on Sunday to win the Croatian Open for the fifth time.
Sunday's victory was the 20th career title for the former world No 1, now ranked 20th. Moya's last victory in Umag was four years ago.
The 30-year old sixth seed broke Pavel in the ninth game but secured the first set only after taking eight set points and saving four break chances in the next game.
Moya broke twice in the second set while Pavel, ranked 132nd, had little chance to strike back.
Three top seeds, world No 3 Novak Djokovic of Serbia, fourth ranked Russian Nikolay Davydenko and top Croat player Ivan Ljubicic, left the tournament early in the week.
STANFORD (California): Top seed Anna Chakvetadze defeated India's Sania Mirza 6-3, 6-2 to win her first Stanford classic title on Sunday.
Recording her 10th win in the United States in 2-1/2 weeks, the 20-year-old Russian was the far more consistent player, pushing Sania around the court with razor-sharp groundstrokes.
Both Sania and Chakvetadze had also reached the doubles final with different partners and played in Cincinatti last week where Chakvetadze won the title.
The Russian was the livelier player on the day, moving to a career-high No 6 in the rankings.—Reuters
