Dmitry Tursunov captured the Open de Moselle title on Sunday with a three-set victory over French crowd favorite Paul-Henri Mathieu.
The fifth-seeded Tursunov notched a 7-6 (8-6), 1-6, 6-4 triumph for his fifth career title and second of 2008.
He also won in Sydney at the start of the season, and Sunday's win improved his career finals record to 5-2. One of those losses came in July at Indianapolis.
Mathieu, seeded fourth, was playing in his first final of the year and the seventh of his career. He fell to 4-3 in title matches, last winning a tournament last year in Gstaad.
The victory was worth $82,000 for Tursunov, who was born in Moscow and resides in California.
He improved to 2-0 lifetime against Mathieu, also winning a three-set match at the Queen's Club in 2007.
Frenchmen Arnaud Clement and Michael Llodra retained their Open de Moselle title after defeating top seeded Poles Mariusz Fyrstenberg and Marcin Matkowski 5-7, 6-3, 10-8 in a repeat of the 2007 final.
(Via sportsnetwork.com, Image by Yahoo! Sport)
New No. 1 Jelena Jankovic won her second title in two weeks, defeating Nadia Petrova of Russia 6-4, 6-3 Sunday in the final of the Porsche Grand Prix.The 23-year-old Serb also won the China Open last week and the Italian Open earlier this year. “I am really proud of myself,” she said.
“I am playing with a lot of confidence and I played some good tennis this week.”
Jankovic was assured of taking the top ranking Monday from Serena Williams regardless of the outcome of the final.
She already held the No. 1 spot for one week in August. “I feel that every day I am getting better and better. I am really working on my game, I want to reach my full potential,” Jankovic said.
Williams became the No. 1 after defeating Jankovic at the U.S. Open final, but the American will drop in the rankings after losing her opening match in Stuttgart.
Jankovic won her eighth career title after overcoming a brief lapse in the second set against the 18th-ranked Russian, who won the Stuttgart tournament in 2006.
After the win, Jankovic took a spin in the red Porsche 911 convertible given to the winner and appeared to have more trouble controlling the powerful car than the match.
She broke serve in the opening game and it was enough to give her the set against an error-prone Petrova. “I really wanted to win this trophy, and when you want too much, sometimes it doesn’t work in tennis,” Petrova said.
“I gave it my best.”
Petrova had not dropped a set this week until the final.
Jankovic has been playing with a painful left foot after tearing off a toe nail. She needed painkiller shots before her semifinal win over Venus Williams and got two more before the final.Asked about her foot at the post-match news conference, Jankovic misunderstood the question and replied, “The food is great.”
Realizing the mistake, Jankovic burst out laughing and then added: “It’s numb during the match and I don’t feel anything, but after a couple of hours it hurts a lot,” she said.
“The doctor told me to wear flip-flops but I am flying to Serbia tonight, I can’t go in flip-flops like I am going to the beach.”
Jankovic is scheduled to play the Kremlin Cup next week. Although she left open whether she would actually show up in Moscow for the tournament, which Williams is skipping. “I feel tired now, but mentally I am not tired, I am hungry to do well. I want to finish the year as No. 1,” she said.
The doubles final, which followed the singles final, saw top seeds Kveta Peschke and Rennae Stubbs taking on the wildcard pairing of Patty Schnyder and Anna-Lena Groenefeld.
And it was the underdogs who came out on top, as Groenefeld and Schnyder won their first title together with a 62 64 upset victory.
Groenefeld won her seventh career Tour doubles title, and first since the beginning of 2007; Schnyder picked up her fifth Tour doubles title, her first since early 2004.
(Via AP, Images via Yahoo! Sport, zimbio.com)
Ninth seed Tomas Berdych powered past Argentina's Juan Martin Del Potro in straight sets to win the Japan Open, his first ATP title of the season.
In the women's competition, top seed Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark battled to a 6-2 3-6 6-1 win over Kaia Kanepi of Estonia to claim her third WTA title of the year.
Berdych, who shocked American second seed Andy Roddick and third seed Fernando Gonzalez on his way to the final, surprisingly had a one-sided 6-1, 6-4 victory over the fifth-seeded Del Potro. "In this condition and at this level of tennis, I think the most important thing is to... just be 100 percent on the court - then the results can come," said the 23-year-old Czech.
"I think it happened to me this week and I'm very happy for that. I'm really happy to win here, especially here in Tokyo, I hope I will be here next year."
Berdych, currently ranked 27th in the world, said his goal was to finish 2008 in or near the top 10.
Del Potro - ranked 12th after a blistering summer during which he won four titles - appeared to be off form, taking an injury time out during the first set and another before the start of the second set.
Del Potro said he had taken some medication, but did not blame the loss on his illness, saying: "He played much better than me. I was feeling confused (by his play), but he did a great match."
"After the first set I started to play a little better, but it was too late."
It was Berdych's first title since winning at Halle in June last year, and his fourth overall, after victories at Palermo in 2004 and Paris in 2005.
On the women's side, the 18-year-old Wozniacki added to her 2008 success, after winning in Stockholm and New Haven in August."I feel amazing. I just won another tournament. It's been an incredible year. This is my first title here in Japan and I'm very happy," said a jubilant Wozniacki, ranked 16th against Kanepi's 33rd.
"I think I improved a lot last year."
Leander Paes and Lukas Dlouhy's bid for a second successive ATP title ended in disappointment after the top seeds were stunned by the Russian-German pair of Mikhail Youzhny and Mischa Zverev in the finals of AIG Japan Open in Tokyo today.
The unseeded Youzhny and Zverev beat the Indo-Czech pair 6-3, 6-4 to capture their second ATP title together.
It is the second time this year that Youzhny and Zverev have combined to deny Paes and Dlouhy a title win, having also done so when they claimed their maiden ATP title at Halle in June.
(Via news.theage.com.au, Images via Yahoo! Sport, zimbio.com)
Many tennis fans are excited about the return of Joachim Johansson, who is most affectionately known as Pim-Pim.
The former world no. 9 from Sweden announced last week that he would resume his professional tennis career starting at the Stockholm Open, where he has received a wild card for the main draw, which starts on Monday.
The 26-year-old Johansson originally retired from the ATP circuit in February after suffering from shoulder injuries for three years. “My shoulder feels much better and when Pelle (Per Hjertquist, Tournament Director) asked me to play here it felt like a very exciting challenge," Johansson said.
"It’s extra special for me to play this tournament, with home court advantage and with the wonderful atmosphere in the arena.”
The Stockholm Open will be Johansson’s only event in 2008, while he will resume a full schedule starting in 2009.
The 6’6’’ right-hander played his last professional match in Stockholm last year, defeating Carlos Berlocq in the first round before withdrawing from his second match due to illness.
Johansson captured three ATP titles during his professional career. His best Grand Slam performance came at the ’04 US Open, when he beat defending champion Andy Roddick in the quarterfinals before falling to Lleyton Hewitt in the semifinals.
He reached a career-high No. 9 in the South African Airways ATP Rankings on February 14, 2005.
(Via menstennisforums, Image via joachimjohansson.org)
Dmitry Tursunov captured the Open de Moselle title on Sunday with a three-set victory over French crowd favorite Paul-Henri Mathieu. 
