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Dementieva Defeats Hingis for First Tier I Singles Title

TOKYO, Japan - Russia's Elena Dementieva captured the biggest title of her career on Sunday, crushing resurgent former world No.1 Martina Hingis 62 60 in the championship singles final of the 2006 Toray Pan Pacific Open, a $1,340,000 Tier I event on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour.

Dementieva, seeded No.2 this week, dictated play from the baseline against the unseeded wild card Hingis from the beginning, breaking serve in the very first game and clinching the first set on a run of three straight games. The 24-year-old Muscovite was even more dominant in the second set, winning over twice as many points as Hingis, including converting on all three of her break opportunities en route to closing out the one-hour, one-minute victory, her third in five encounters with the 25-year-old Swiss.

"I felt like I played up to my potential today," Dementieva said. "I just went for all of my shots and I was serving pretty well also. She's a great champion and I was happy for the opportunity to play her here for my first Tier I title. It means a lot to me that the fans here in Japan have been great in supporting the tournament all week."

Dementieva captured her fifth and biggest career Tour singles title with the victory, having never won an event at the Tier I level or higher. The Russian had won two Tier II titles, at Amelia Island and Shanghai in 2003, and two Tier III titles, at Bali in 2003 and Hasselt in 2004. She had also reached several big stage finals but finished a runner-up every time, including Roland Garros and the US Open in 2004 and four Tier Is, most recently at the clay court event in Charleston last season. Dementieva is projected to rise from No.9 to No.8 when the new Tour Singles Rankings are released on Monday.

A run to the final of the Toray Pan Pacific Open was somewhat of a surprise for Hingis, who was playing the fourth tournament of her 2006 comeback. The Swiss was unranked until January 16, when she reentered the rankings at No.349. Her quarterfinal finish at the Australian Open saw her shoot up to No.117 on January 30, and she now goes down in the history books as the third-lowest-ranked woman ever to reach a Tier I singles final, following an unranked Jennifer Capriati at Hilton Head in 1990 and a 133rd-ranked Kim Clijsters at Indian Wells last year. Hingis is projected to rise to No.52 on the new Tour Singles Rankings.

"It used to be I had to play both Williams sisters and Lindsay Davenport, now it's the Russians," Hingis said. "I am proud of my week, I have surpassed all my expectations of my comeback and feel very good knowing I can go out there and play with the best players in the world. I really enjoyed my week in Tokyo and look forward to coming back next year and trying to take my fifth title here."

The two finalists travelled very different paths to Sunday's match. Hingis only had one struggle, against No.3 seed Nathalie Dechy in the second round, winning 46 75 62. She had an easy time in her other three rounds, losing a total of just seven games in notching her fourth career double-bagel against Yoon Jeong Cho in the first round and cruising past Russian teenagers Maria Kirilenko and top seed and defending champion Maria Sharapova in the quarterfinals and semifinals, respectively. Dementieva had a much tougher road, defeating Slovenia's Katarina Srebotnik 26 61 75 in her opening round, moving past No.5 seed Nicole Vaidisova 36 61 62 in the quarters and then going to three sets again with a 64 36 64 victory over No.4 seed Anastasia Myskina in the semis.

Dementieva is now 3-2 lifetime against Hingis. Hingis won their first two encounters, a 63 62 victory in the second round of the 1999 Australian Open and a 60 67(5) 75 victory in the 2000 Moscow quarterfinals. Dementieva has dominated ever since, winning 62 62 in the same round of Moscow the following year, cruising 63 61 in the second round of 2002 Filderstadt (in what turned out to be Hingis' last match before her three-year retirement) and now putting together another quick victory in Tokyo.

The doubles final was also contested on Sunday, and in another lopsided result, No.2 seeds and recent Australian Open finalists Lisa Raymond and Samantha Stosur breezed past top seeds Cara Black and Rennae Stubbs 62 61 in just 45 minutes. The two teams, arguably the hottest doubles tandems in the world over the last six months, have now met six times, with Raymond and Stosur leading the series 5-1. It was the 51st career Tour doubles title for Raymond and the eighth for Stosur. The winning pair finished runners-up in Melbourne just last week, squandering two match points during a marathon three set loss to China's Zi Yan and Zheng Jie.

"We knew what we had to do," said Stosur, who also reached her career-first Tier I singles quarterfinal this week. "We had a game plan and we just stuck to it and it really paid off perfectly for us today."

The Toray Pan Pacific Open boasts an incredible roster of former champions, including former No.1s Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf, Hingis, Lindsay Davenport and Sharapova. Other winners are Manuela Maleeva-Fragnière, Gabriela Sabatini, Pam Shriver, Kimiko Date and Iva Majoli. Former finalists include Helena Sukova, Arantxa Sánchez-Vicario, Amanda Coetzer and Monica Seles. Dementieva took home $196,900 for the title, while Hingis received $105,800.