The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Haas overcomes Tursunov for LA title

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Aug 01, 2006

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Sport - Tennis

Haas overcomes Tursunov for LA title

LOS ANGELES : Germany's Tommy Haas won his third title of the year and the second Los Angeles championship in three years when he beat Russian Dmitry Tursunov 4-6, 7-5, 6-3 in the Countrywide Classic on Sunday.

``I'll try to keep this going for the next couple of weeks. It's not going to get any easier, but I feel like if I can stay healthy, stay in shape and keep playing tough matches," he said.

Sixth-seeded Haas bounced back from a first-set loss to keep the pressure on eighth-seeded Tursunov, who was playing in his first tour final.

The 23-year-old Russian, who has lived in California since he was 12, won the first set with hard, accurate groundstrokes, but his game began disintegrating in the 12th game of the second.

A forehand long, a carom off his racket frame, and another forehand into the net by Tursunov helped Haas break his serve and tie the match at a set apiece.

Haas broke Tursunov's serve again in the second game of the third set, then held serve for the rest of the way to add the 2006 Los Angeles championship to the one he won here in 2004.

Fourth for Clijsters

At Stanford, Kim Clijsters won her fourth Bank of the West Classic title in six years on Sunday, effortlessly beating Patty Schnyder 6-4, 6-2 to stay unbeaten in the event since 2002.

Clijsters won the tournament in 2001 and 2003, missed the event with an injury one year later, and then repeated her title last year, beating Venus Williams.

In the final, Clijsters overwhelmed her Swiss opponent with sharp serves, then ran her ragged with back-and-forth groundstrokes to win her 32nd career title and her second this season, following a victory in Warsaw in May.

Stanislas Wawrinka won his first ATP title when favoured Novak Djokovic retired with breathing problems during the first set of the Croatia Open final on Sunday.

The results: Finals:

At Los Angeles: Countrywide Classic: Tommy Haas bt Dmitry Tursunov 4-6, 7-5, 6-3.

At Stanford: Bank of the West Classic: Kim Clijsters bt Patty Schnyder 6-4, 6-2.

At Umag: Studena Croatia Open: Stanislas Wawrinka bt Novak Djokovic 6-6 (1-3), retd.

At Kitzbuehel: Generali Open: Agustin Calleri bt Juan Ignacio Chela 7-6(9), 6-2, 6-3. — AP

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