Murray, Ivanovic win titles in Tennis events

[Sadaf Gondal]

SAINT PETERSBURG, Russia: Britain's Andy Murray won the Petersburg Tennis Open Tennis tournament here while Serbian top seed Ana Ivanovic won the WTA Linz Open Tennis Tournament in Linz, Austria on Sunday.

Defending champion Anddy Murraya beat qualifier Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan in straight sets here Sunday to successfully defend his title at the one-million-dollar St Petersburg Open.

Murray, the top seed and currently fourth in the world, beat 150th ranked Golubev 6-1, 6-1 in just 56 minutes to clinch his second consecutive title and fifth of the season.

The 21-year-old Scot broke midway into the opening set for a comfortbale 4-1 lead.

Golubev, 21, who was playing his first ATP final, fought valiantly to limit the damage but was overpowered by Murray whose accuracy allowed him to break again in the sixth game for a one-set lead in 27 minutes.

In the second Murray confirmed his supremacy producing three more breaks to
take the set and the match.

After picking up the trophy and 171,000 dollars in prize money, Murray said he is hoping to maintain his form for the end-of-season Shanghai Masters beginning November 9.

On the other hand, Serbian top seed Ana Ivanovic won the 600,000 dollars WTA event in Linz on Sunday with an impressive 6-2, 6-1 demolition of Russian second seed Vera Zvonareva.

Ivanovic, currently ranked fourth in the world after a spell as number one, swamped her ninth-ranked rival, at 23 three years her senior, never looking back after two breaks sent her romping 3-0 clear in the opening set.

She wrapped that one up at the first time of asking then bagged another break to all but end her rival's resistance at the start of the second.

She completed the job in just 51 minutes on her first match point.

Ivanovic, ten days off her 21st birthday, pocketed her eighth career title and the third of 2008 - including Roland-Garros.

After winning in Paris and taking the number one ranking, things turned sour for the Serbian pin-up as a right thumb injury forced her to miss the Beijing Olympics, while dragging down her overall level - she went out in the third round at Wimbledon to 133rd-ranked Jie Zheng of China.

In Linz, she had to fight to reach the trophy match as Polish third seed Agnieszka Radwanska took her the distance.

But she dug in having lost the Zurich semi to Venus Williams to go one better and Sunday's showing suggested she is now back to her imperious best.

Zvonareva remains stuck on seven titles - she won this season in Prague and Guangzhou - but can console herself that she will be in the frame for more at the Doha Masters starting on November 4.

Also qualified are Jelena Jankovic, Dinara Safina, Serena Williams, Ivanovic, Elena Dementieva and Svetlana Kuznetsova.

[~*zaib*~]

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