As Mariya Koryttseva’s forehand landed wide, the other Maria, the champion here, broke into a huge smile as she realised that her long wait for her second Sony Ericsson WTA Tour singles title has finally come to an end. Russian Kirilenko, seeded fourth, romped to a 6-0, 6-2 victory against the Ukrainian in a rather one-sided final of the Sunfeast Open at the Netaji Indoor Stadium here today. Kirilenko’s only WTA tour title before the Sunfeast Open had been in 2005 in Beijing. There, as an unseeded unheralded player she made her way to the semi-final where she ran into none other than world No. 1 Maria Sharapova. Trailing 1-6, 2-4, Sharapova retired suffering from a muscle strain and Kirilenko made it to the final to eventually win the tournament. Today, in the first set itself she made her intentions clear. Flawless service unsettled Koryttseva to such an extent that she never really found her bearings. It took Kirilenko only 26 minutes to win six games on the trot. It appeared as if the Ukrainian could do nothing right. She was forced to play from the baseline, and made desperate runs trying to reach the ball. Her usually effective forehand was completely neutralised by her higher-ranked opponent today. In the second, albeit for a brief while, Koryttseva showed signs of a fightback and broke Kirilenko in the first game itself. But that was all the allowance she got, as the Russian won six games in a row — from the third to the eighth — to win the second set 6-2 and with it the match. For the record, she broke Koryttseva back in the fourth game, and then went on to break in the sixth and eighth. Kirilenko, who played stupendous tennis in the semi-final yesterday to get past second seed Slovak Daniela Hantuchova, didn’t even need to raise her game to such heights today. A number of unforced errors and faulty backhands by the Ukrainian made her job easier. But at the end of the day, she returned as the title winner and promised the crowd here: “Yes, I will be back next year. Do you want me to?” After the match, she said: “Ever since I signed up with Eric (van Harpen), my game has improved. He understands my game and I understand what he is trying to say. So we get along very well.” About today’s match, she said: “In the first set, I had it very easy. In the second I guess she came back for the first two games.” From here, Kirilenko’s next stop is Seoul, where the tournament starts tomorrow. In the doubles final, American Vania King and Alla Kudryavtseva of Russia won the title, defeating Italian Alberta Brianti and losing singles finalist Mariya Koryttseva of Ukraine in straight sets, 6-1, 6-4.
