Kafelnikov gets his French right

Kafelnikov gets his French right
Agencies

MARSEILLE, February 18: Yevgeny Kafelnikov won his first title of the year when he beat local hero Sebastien Grosjean 7-6, 6-2 in Sunday’s final of the $500,000 Marseille Open. The second-seeded Russian won the 23rd title of his career while fourth-seeded Grosjean lost for the fourth time in five final appearances.

Kafelnikov has now won at least one tournament in each of the last eight years. The Frenchman had desperately wanted to win in Front of his hometown crowd, but squandered his chances in the first set.

The Davis Cup player led 3-1, 5-3 and 6-5 but on each occasion let Kafelnikov fight back. After the Sydney Olympic Games gold medallist had sealed the tie-breaker with an ace, the fight appeared to go out of Grosjean’s game.Kafelnikov quickly raced to a 3-1 lead in the second set and Grosjean was unable to get back on terms.

Nice win for Mauresmo
NICE: AMELIE Mauresmo crushed Magdalena Maleeva 6-2, 6-0 in Sunday’s final of the $565,000 Nice Open women’s indoor tournament to seal her second title in eight days. The seventh-seeded French player won the fourth title of her career just a week after winning the Paris Open title by beating Germany’s Anke Huber in the final. Mauresmo, 21, completely overpowered her more experienced Bulgarian opponent, who was playing in her first final of the year. Mauresmo earned a first prize of $90,000, taking her singles earnings over the last eight days to $180,000.

Easy for Martina Hingis
Doha: Top-seed Martina Hingis continued her unbeaten record against third-seeded Sandrine Testud of France when she galloped to a straight sets victory here at the $ 170,000 Qatar Open. The world No. 1 took just 50 minutes yesterday to continue her 14-match record against testud winning 6-3 6-2 to lift the inaugural event here in a country where competitive sport is practically non-existent for women.

The 20-year-old Swiss player arrived on court for the closing ceremony on horseback dressed in traditional Qatari costume topped off with a gold crown on her head.

‘‘I always dreamt of being a princess and coming onto court on horseback,’’ said Hingis, after overpowering veteran Testud to lift her third WTA title this year.The Frenchwoman started well matching Hingis in the opening three games but went on to lose two service games in a row.

The 28-year-old Testud looked exhausted as she desperately tried to get back into the match during the second set.

But Hingis did not give her a chance playing a tactically brilliant game backed up with a powerful serve.

‘‘Testud started well. It wasn’t a one-sided match. I had to dig deep to beat her,’’ said Hingis.