Russia Wins 2nd Consecutive Fed Cup; Nadal Ties Federer with 10 Titles

Nadal and Federer are the first pair of players since 1981 to win 10 titles in a season, matching John McEnroe and Ivan Lendl's runs that year. Nadal's 10 titles are a record for a teenager, eclipsing Mats Wilander's nine in 1983. Nadal is now 10-1 in finals this season, losing to Roger Federer on hardcourts in Miami.

In the all-unseeded doubles final, American Justin Gimelstob and Australian Nathan Healey defeated the Russians Dmitry Tursunov and Mikhail Youzhny 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 for their first title of the year as a team.

"Beijing has treated me well," Gimelstob said. "I won the challenger last year in singles and won the doubles here last year too. I played well in singles here this week and won the doubles again so I've felt very comfortable here in Beijing."

Unseeded Serra Wins 1st Career Title at ATP Bucharest

Unseeded Frenchman Florent Serra beat fellow unseeded Russian Igor Andreev 6-3, 6-4 in the final of the ATP stop in Bucharest Sunday to capture his first ATP title.

Serra ran to a 3-0 lead in the first set, while Andreev could not capitalize on a break lead early in the second, with the Frenchman running out the last four games.

"My coach told me that I had to be aggressive," Serra said. "I was very lucky in the first round, I was only about one or two centimeters from losing. I won my first challenger earlier this year in Mexico City but this is different, this is ATP level."

Playing in his seventh ATP event of the year, Serra had never reached an ATP quarterfinal.

Andreev is now 1-4 in career finals.

"I'm a little bit disappointed because I was playing well during all the week," Andreev said. "Today I couldn't find my game, but anyway I'm happy to have reached the final."

In the doubles final, No. 3 seeds Jose Acasuso and Sebastian Prieto defeated unseeded Romanians Victor Hanescu and Andrei Pavel 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 for their second title in their fourth final of the year.

"We had a great week," Prieto said. "Actually, the past three months after Wimbledon have been unbelievable. We have been playing great together -- one title and two finals. This is the second title in two months and it's unbelievable."

Davenport Cruises to WTA Bali Title

Top seed Lindsay Davenport capped her resort vacation week at the WTA stop in Bali without dropping a set, Sunday defeating No.4 seed Francesca Schiavone 6-2, 6-4 for her fourth title of the year.

"It's tough sometimes to play four weeks in a row and still to come out on top," Davenport said. "I've played a lot of matches the last few weeks and I felt this whole week was a success. I won in straight sets every match, and it's not always easy to win when you're expected to win. I felt I handled that very well this week."

Davenport was broken at 2-2 in the second set but recovered even with the Italian Sciavone stepping up her level.

"The balls were definitely coming a little bit harder and deeper," Davenport said. "She wasn't really allowing me to be inside the baseline as much as I was in the first set. I didn't play a great game to get broken, but overall I got it back together at the end and obviously I'm happy to come out with a victory."

Davenport will remain at No. 2 on the WTA Rankings, but will have a chance to overtake Maria Sharapova next week when both players compete at Beijing.

Schiavone fell to 0-3 in career finals in Bali.

"In the second set I tried to serve better and to do better with my return and make her play what she doesn't want," Schiavone said. "I tried to run faster, but it's not easy when she hits the ball with such good timing."

In the doubles final, top seeds Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Meghann Shaughnessy won their first title as a team with a 6-3, 6-2 win over No. 4-seeded Chinese Yan Zi and Zheng Jie.

Russia Wins Final Doubles to Retain Fed Cup Title

Elena Dementieva played the one-woman band Sunday in driving Russia to its second straight Fed Cup title, teaming with Dinara Safina in the deciding doubles to defeat Amelie Mauresmo and Mary Pierce 6-4, 1-6, 6-3.

While Anastasia Myskina won both singles and the doubles to lead Russia in the final last year, this time it was Dementieva's turn as Myskina lost both the singles.

"It's my third Fed Cup final but the first time that I have won so I am really happy," Dementieva said.

Dementieva led off Sunday with a three-set win over Mauresmo, then Myskina blew a set and 4-1 lead against Pierce as the French evened up the tie.

Dementieva said Myskina was nonetheless instrumental in the 2005 Fed Cup title.

"Although Anastasia lost today, if she hadn't beaten Venus Williams in the semifinal (against the U.S.), we may not have been here," Dementieva said.

Dementieva and Safina had never played together as a team, and the nerves showed on both sides in the doubles as the first three games went to breaks of serve. Mauresmo and Pierce won six straight games to capture the second set, but in the third Mauresmo's nerves surfaced, dropping serve twice to hand Russia the title.

"It's hard to analyze straight after a defeat," Mauresmo said. "We played our best but it wasn't good enough. I hope I don't take too long to recover from this."

Russia is the first country to win consecutive titles since the U.S. in 1999-2000. The last country to win three in a row was Spain in 1993-95.

Sharapova, Davenport Take No. 1 Battle to WTA Beijing

Lindsay Davenport, coming off the title in Bali, will have an opportunity to re-take the No. 1 ranking from Maria Sharapova this week in Beijing, but both players will have to deal with two wildcards not often seen in lower-tier tournaments -- Venus and Serena Williams.

From there the field quality falls off with fellow seeds Alicia Molik, Jelena Jankovic, Tatiana Golovin, and Flavia Pennetta.

The top four seeds receive byes, but there remain a few opening-round matches of note in (7) Golovin vs. Shinobu Asagoe, (6) Jankovic vs. China's Jie Zheng, and an all-Japanese in Akiko Morigami vs. (WC) Ai Sugiyama.

In last year's final the top-seeded Serena came from a set down to defeat No. 2 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova 4-6, 7-5, 6-4.

Myskina, Mirza Headline WTA Kolkata

Last year's French Open winner Anastasia Myskina and headline-maker Sania Mirza lead this week's Sunfeast Open, the WTA stop in Kolkata.

Myskina is fresh off Russia's Fed Cup victory, while Mirza has been producing headlines worldwide with Muslim clerics demanding she wear more than the traditional tennis garb.

Also seeded in Kolkata are Russia's Elena Likhovtseva, Italians Maria Elena Camerin and Antonella Serra "Neveda" Zanetti, Spain's Laura Pous Tio, Croat Karolina "The Spreminator" Sprem, and Japan's Rika Fujiwara.

Mirza, who has drawn the perhaps politically-incorrect nickname "The Hot Dot" for her penchant for Western-style tight tops covering her ample, err, womanhood, nose piercing and tight short-shorts on the practice court, has come under fire from fringe-group clerics in India who say cover that stuff up.

"She will be stopped from playing if she doesn't adhere to the Islamic dress code," threatened Siddiqullah Chowdhary of Jamaat-e-Ulema-e-Hind.

While the No. 3-seeded Mirza continues her drive toward a Top 20 ranking, the top-seeded Myskina will look to halt her slide that has taken her out of the Top 10, and earn her first title of the year at Kolata.

The seeds should not have too difficult a time in the early goings as virtually all unseeded players are ranked outside the Top 100 on the WTA rankings.

Kolkata is a new event on the WTA calendar for 2005.

Lower Ranks Fight It Out at WTA Portoroz

Without a Top 20 player in sight, the Tier IV Banka Koper Slovenia Open in Portoroz begs the question how this is a tour event on the 2005 WTA calendar.

Italy's Silvia Farina Elia heads the seeds, joined by Spain's Anabel Medina Garrigues, Czechs Kveta Peschke, Klara Koukalova and Iveta Benesova, France's Marion Bartoli, Slovenia's own Katarina Srebotnik, and another Italian in Roberta Vinci.

Portoroz is a new event on the 2005 WTA calendar.

Davis Cup Semifinals, Qualifying Round This Weekend

Friday kicks off play for the Davis Cup World Group semifinals, with Argentina at the Slovak Republic, and Russia at Croatia.

Russia will have a tough time without Marat Safin, out with a knee injury, while Argentina will be without fast-court specialist Guillermo Canas who is serving a two-year doping ban.

Vying for positions in the 2006 World Group through the qualifying round will be Ecuador at Austria, Belarus at Canada, Pakistan at Chile, Germany at the Czech Republic, Spain at Italy, Sweden at India, Great Britain at Switzerland, and the U.S. at Belgium.

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