Myskina Denied 1st 2005 Title by Srebotnik in WTA Stockholm Final

The physically and mentally-fragile Russian, who despite some bouts of choking last year dominated play on the WTA Tour, winning the French Open and threatening the top spot on the WTA Rankings, rising to a career-high No. 2, has this year slid from the Top 10 after a family illness and a lack of confidence removed her ability to win the big matches at crunch time.

Case in point was the Sunday final at the WTA Stop in Stockholm against No. 5-seeded, No. 62-ranked Katarina Srebotnik.

Myskina had her phaser set on 'spray' throughout the first set, and when it came down to the big points the Russian handed her opponent the first set 7-5 before all but throwing away the second set 6-2.

The Russian is still searching for her first title of 2005, while to Srebotnik's credit she collected her second title of the year after Auckland.

"It's been a great week, we had some trouble with the weather, but we made it," said Srebotnik, who needed five points before the final to finish off a rain-delayed semifinal 6-0, 7-5 in an upset of No. 3 seed Vera Douchevina.

Srebotnik received the Stockholm crystal trophy from men's former No. 1 Bjorn Borg.

In the doubles final the No. 2-seeded Czech-Italian team of Birnerova/Santangelo rolled the unseeded Austrian Klemenschits sisters 7-5, 6-0 for their first title as a team.