Cibulkova grabs first career title in Moscow

Slovak tennis player Dominika Cibulkova has won the Kremlin Cup to lift her maiden title on the WTA tour.

­Cibulkova, who eliminated on No.1 seed Vera Zvonareva in the semis, took on unseeded Kaia Kanepi of Estonia in the final in the Russian capital.

It was Kanepi who grabbed the opener, and then had a great chance to finish the in her favor as the second set went to a tie-break.

But Cibulkova got herself together at the right moment, with the 22-year-old storming the tie-break 7-1.  

The third set was also tight, but the Slovak got the upper hand, cruising to a 3-6, 7-7, 7-5 win.

“I’ve been close to this win for a long time and I’m so happy to finally clinch my first title,”
Cibulkova said after the match. “It’s the end of the season, which is probably my career’s best. It just couldn’t finish better as I finally got my first WTA win after finishing runner-up in Linz last week. I’m really happy now.”

As for the men’s game, defending champ Viktor Troicki is to clash with top-seeded Janko Tipsarevic in the first-ever all-Serbian Kremlin Cup final later on Sunday.

The Kremlin Cup is an annual tennis tournament which has been on the ATP and WTA calendar since 1990.

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