Tennis: Tipsarevic beats Troicki to clinch Kremlin Cup in first all-Serb final

Tipsarevic, who won his first career title in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, this season, broke Troicki twice in the second set and served for the match to love.

Not waiting for Tipsarevic to come to the net to shake hands, Troicki jumped over the net and embraced his friend. Later they held a joint press conference. “This is like at the Davis Cup,” Tipsarevic said.

Both players said it was not easy to play each other in a final. “It was pretty strange at the beginning,” Troicki said. “We both tried to play our best tennis, but Janko was much better today and he deserved to win. We were friends before and will stay friends after the match.”

Tipsarevic said: “It was tough, especially at the beginning of the match. None of us was really hitting the ball – we were running and just pushing the ball back to the other guy. I was more mentally strong on important moments in the first set, which was really tight, and then I showed my real game in the second set.”

The eighth-seeded Cibulkova is the first women’s player to win a maiden title in Moscow since the tournament started in 1994. The 20th-ranked Slovak had advanced to the final in three previous tournaments – including last week in Linz, Austria, where she lost to Petra Kvitova.

“This is kind of my premiere,” said Cibulkova. “I’ve played great tennis through the whole of the week.”

Kanepi broke Cibulkova in the fourth game of the first set to go 4-1 up and was close to breaking her again at 5-all in the second to serve for the match, but she smashed a volley wide in front of an empty court. The Slovak then dominated the tiebreaker to stay in the match. She broke in the 11th game of the third set and sealed the win on her first match point when Kanepi returned wide.

“I was just playing too defensive in the first set,” Cibulkova said. “In the second set I said, ‘Hey, come on, you have nothing to lose.’ And I started to go more on forehand and to be more aggressive and that’s why I won.”

Cibulkova upset top-seeded local favourite Vera Zvonareva in the second round. The 43rd-ranked Kanepi was making her debut at the event and beat two seeded players – Francesca Schiavone and Svetlana Kuznetsova – to reach her first final this season. She won her first title in Palermo, Italy, last season.

“Definitely I’m disappointed but I’m staying positive about my game,” said Kanepi, who drew cheers after using the Russian word for hello – “Zdravstvuyte everyone” – to greet fans.

Meanwhile, top-seeded Gael Monfils won his first title of the year after defeating Jarkko Nieminen 7-5, 3-6, 6-2 in the Stockholm Open final.

The 10th-ranked Monfils clinched 38 of 54 first serve points against the Finn.

Nieminen, who played his third Stockholm Open final at the Royal Tennis Hall, played offensively in the second set but trailed the 25-year-old Frenchman in the third set.