Svetlana Kuznetsova swept aside a tired Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-2, 6-1 in an all-Russian final to win the Kremlin Cup on Saturday.
Kuznetsova dominated throughout against Pavlyuchenkova, who acknowledged being exhausted as she played her 10th match in 12 days.
For the two-time Grand Slam winner Kuznetsova, it is her first title in her home nation and comes at her 11th attempt at the Kremlin Cup.
Kuznetsova hailed Pavlyuchenkova, who was struggling for fitness after she won the Generali Ladies tournament in Austria last week, as “a real fighter” for playing through the pain.
Pavlyuchenkova held serve with difficulty in the early stages, but struggled to move around the court and was soon overwhelmed.
From 2-2 in the first set, Kuznetsova won the next nine games as she cruised to victory in 1 hour, 19 minutes.
“It was painful that the final turned out like that, but I am happy that I made the final,” Pavlyuchenkova said. “I could not put any pressure on my left leg when serving, so the serve was not working at all. Plus Sveta was playing great. It seemed everything was going her way.”
It was Kuznetsova’s 15th career title and her first since the Citi Open in Washington last year.
Pavlyuchenkova had been bidding to become only the second woman to retain the Kremlin Cup title, matching the 2004 achievement of Anastasia Myskina, who is now Kuznetsova’s coach.
Top-seeded Marin Cilic of Croatia reached the men’s final with a straightforward 6-3, 6-1 win over Russian wild-card entry Evgeny Donskoy.
The big-serving Cilic faced just one break point as he held serve throughout, hitting 10 aces and landing 70 percent of first serves.
In yesterday’s final, he was to face second-seeded Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain, who beat fourth-seeded German Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-4, 6-4.
Shohei Ohtani and his wife arrived in South Korea with his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates yesterday ahead of their season-opening games with the San Diego Padres next week. Ohtani, wearing a black training suit and a cap backwards, was the first Dodgers player who showed up at the arrival gate of Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. His wife, Mamiko Tanaka, walked several steps behind him. As a crowd of fans, many wearing Dodgers jerseys, shouted his name and cheered slogans, Ohtani briefly waved his hand, but did not say anything before he entered a limousine bus with his wife. Fans held placards
Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals at the All England Open, beating Kim Ga-eun of South Korea 21-17, 21-15. With the win, Tai earned a semi-final against China’s He Bingjiao, who beat Michelle Li of Canada 21-9, 21-9. Defending champion An Se-young defeated India’s P.V. Sindhu 21-19, 21-11. An on Wednesday cruised into the second round, unlike last year’s men’s winner, Li Shifeng, who suffered a shock defeat. South Korea’s An, the world No. 1, overcame Taiwan’s Hsu Wen-chi 21-17, 21-16 to set up the match against Sindhu. In other women’s singles matches, Taiwan’s Sung Shuo-yun lost 21-18, 24-22 against Carolina Marin of
EYEING TOP SPOT: A victory in today’s final against Storm Hunter and Katerina Siniakova would return 38-year-old Hsieh Su-wei to the world No. 1 ranking Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens on Thursday secured a spot in the women’s doubles finals at the BNP Paribas Open after dispatching Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) at Indian Wells. Hsieh and her Belgian partner Mertens, who won the Australian Open in late January, coasted through the first set after breaking their opponents’ serve twice, but found the going tougher in the second. Both pairs could only muster one break point over 12 games, neither of which were converted, leaving the set to be decided by a tiebreaker. Hsieh and Mertens took a 6-3 lead,
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