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Venus beats Kirilenko to win Korea Open in Seoul

Top seeded Venus Williams beat Russia's Maria Kirilenko 6-3 1-6 6-4 in the final of the Korea Open yesterday.

Forced to three sets for the first time in the tournament, she outlasted a resilient Kirilenko in a match that lasted two hours and 21 minutes, by far the longest of the tournament for either player.

Serving for the match at 5-4 up in the third set, Williams went down 0-40, and rallied to force deuce. She took the championship when Kirilenko's return went just out of the sideline to Williams' left.

Light rain delayed the match by about an hour, and when it began, Williams wasted little time in breaking Kirilenko's serve in the opening game.

The Russian appeared over-matched early on, but a series of unforced errors by the American allowed Kirilenko to tie things up at 2-2. Overall the two broke each other's serve six times in a first set which Williams eventually won 6-3.

Williams won the first game in the second set but Kirilenko then profited from unforced errors and broke two serves to win 6-1.

In the third the Russian appeared to edge ahead by going up 3-2 on an ace. But Williams survived a gruelling sixth game to tie things up before breaking Kirilenko's serve to go into the lead and holding her own to go 5-3 up.

Kirilenko fought back, winning her own serve game to close the gap, but in the end it was not enough to win her second straight WTA event after Kolkata, India, last Sunday.

Dmitry Tursunov broke a summer losing streak in style yesterday, racing to a 6-2, 6-1 victory over German Benjamin Becker to win the Thailand Open.

Sixth seed Tursunov lifted a trophy in July in Indianapolis, then lost his next three matches in the first round, including in the US Open to Britain's Tim Henman.

Coming to Thailand after Davis Cup commitments in Moscow last weekend, the 24-year-old was facing a crisis of confidence.

But Tursunov quickly put that right as he added the Bangkok crown to Indy and his breakthrough title a year ago in Mumbai.

"I was playing well, to say the least," Tursunov said. "It's a final, a big occasion.

"You don't want to come out an play sloppy. I knew that I had to put pressure on him right away. Unfortunately it was a short match -- bad for the crowd but good for me," he said.
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