Moscow - Home favourite Mikhail Youzhny and Italian veteran Francesca Schiavone both tasted victory in the two-million-dollar Kremlin Cup joint ATP and WTA event here on Sunday.
Third seed Youzhny battled from a set down to beat Serbia's Janko Tipsarevic in the men's final, with Schiavone winning just the second title of her career by defeating Olga Govortsova of Belarus 6-3, 6-0.
Youzhny, playing in his 11th consecutive Kremlin Cup, won 6-7 (5/7), 6-0, 6-4 to extend the streak of successive Russian champions in the event to six and secure his first win over Tipsarevic in three encounters.
The last non-Russian to win the men's title here was American Taylor Dent in 2003.
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Youzhny, 30th in the ATP rankings, looked more focused from the start, breaking his sixth-seeded rival's serve early for a 3-0 advantage.
But Tipsarevic, who was playing his first career ATP final at the age of 25, broke back in the fifth game to level at three games all.
The two players, neither of whom had dropped a set before the final, settled the opening set in a tie-break, which world number 46 Tipsarevic won after one hour and 11 minutes on court.
In the second Youzhny, 27, spurred on by the home crowd, picked up steam, breaking his rival's serve three times to win the set to love in 33 minutes.
Youzhny also began the deciding set with an immediate break.
Tipsarevic fought tooth and nail trying to close the gap but Youzhny was in complete command and kept his narrow lead intact throughout the set to seal his fifth career title in two hours and 43 minutes.
"The first set was completely even as we were both fresh and Janko was had a bit of luck to take the lead," Youzhny said.
"But later I managed to turn things round, although the match was really tense right until the end."
Schiavone, 29, and ranked 24th in the world, won in one hour and 17 minutes to record her second win in three head-to-head meetings with Govortsova.
The finalists traded breaks throughout a closely-fought first set, but it was Schiavone, the 2005 runner-up here, who was the more consistent.
She broke her rival's serve three times for a one-set lead in 47 minutes, while Govortsova managed just two breaks.
In the second set Govortsova, currently 67th in the WTA rankings, lost her nerve completely, allowing the experienced Schiavone to break three more times to win the set to love.
"In the first set we were pretty close, battling for every single point," said Schiavone, the eighth seed. "But in the end I was a bit more precise and served well when it was 5-3 to win the set."
"I won! And I'm happy!" claimed Schiavone, who had won only one of her previous 10 WTA tournament finals, at Bad Gastein in 2007. - Sapa-AFP
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