Sunfeast Open: Myskina wins singles title

Kolkata: Top seed Anastasia Myskina of Russia lifted her first singles crown of the season with a straight set annihilation of Croatia's Karolina Sprem at the $1,70,000 WTA Sunfeast open today. Giving a fine exhibition of cool temperament and controlled aggression, world number 12 Myskina maintained a stranglehold on the tie except during the early stages of the second set to chalk out a 6-2, 6-2 win over Sprem in about an hour at the Netaji Indoor Stadium. Myskina seemed unstoppable, hitting an array of forehand winners, as her rival looked tentative on her serve and failed to find the measure of the court. Sprem executed some fine shots, but drowned her efforts in a sea of unforced errors. In the first set, the 24-year-old Russian broke Sprem in the second and fourth games to open up a 4-0 lead, but was broken back in the fifth. Despite the crowd egging her on, Sprem again dropped serve in the eighth to concede the set in half an hour The second set saw the two contestants trading breaks in the first four games, before Myskina held her serve in the fifth and proceeded to demolish the world number 81 Croatian in the sixth and eighth games to close the match and gain 120 ranking points, apart from getting richer by $27,000. (PTI)