Moya completes injury comeback with title

Seles beats Martinez for WTA crown

AMELIA ISLAND: Monica Seles won her second consecutive title here at a $535,000 Bausch and Lomb WTA clay-court event, defeating Spain’s Conchita Martinez 6-3, 6-2 for her second crown of the year.

The third-seeded American won $87,000 and rose to 11-1 in three appearances here, including titles this year and last. Seles had to win four weekend matches to take the title after rain washed out two days of play.

"It has been very hard on all the players with so many matches we have had to play," Seles said. "All of us had two matches back-to-back it’s truly unbelievable. I thought we might never finish this tournament.

Two semifinals in the morning finished with the exact same score as the Championship match. Seles rolled to a 6-3, 6-2 victory over Argentina’s Paola Suarez and Martinez, the 1995 champion here, beat Elena Likhovtseva of Russia.

Ilie wins Challenge

ATLANTA:Andrew Ilie defeated Jason Stoltenberg 6-3, 7-5 in the all-Australian final of the Atlanta Tennis Challenge. It was Ilie’s second career title and earned him $49,500 yesterday. Ilie controlled the match with powerful grounstrokes and finished with 24 winners against 22 errors. Ilie’s serve, which peaked at a tournament-high 130 mph (209 kph), got him out of serveral jams in the first set, when he saved five break points.

In the second, ilie failed to serve out that match at 5-4 but made good on his second attempt at 6-5. In keeping with his habit following big victories, Ilie ripped off his shirt and threw it to fans in the crowd. He began the tradition last year at the French Open following consecutive five-set victories. Ilie, an emotional player who likes to clinch his fists after big shots, became a crowd favourite during the week.