
Russia's Elena Dementieva gave herself an early birthday present when she rallied after dropping the first set to beat Serena Williams 5-7, 6-1, 6-1 and win her maiden Kremlin Cup title.
Top seed Nikolay Davydenko prevailed over France's Paul-Henri Mathieu 7-5, 7-6 in the men's final later in the day to retain his crown and complete the Russian double.
Davydenko, who called for a medical timeout late in the second set to treat his right wrist, needed four match points to finish off the fourth-seeded Frenchman for his third victory in Moscow in the last four years.
The Russian, who won his first title of the year, said he was one point away from defaulting.
"Honestly, I was pretty lucky to win the tie break," said the world number four, who saved seven set points in the tiebreak.
"I had a lot of pain in my wrist, so I would've quit, no doubt, if had lost that second set."
Dementieva, who turns 26 on Monday, came out storming after losing the first set, breaking the fourth-seeded American three times in each of the next two sets to claim her first career win over the former world number one in emphatic fashion.
"It's just a great victory for me," the Russian told reporters after winning her eighth career title.
"This has been one of my favourite tournaments and playing at home in front of my fans, finally I was able to do it. It is a very important win for me and my whole career."
"She just played really unbelievable, she should play like that more often," said Williams, who was making her second visit to Moscow 10 years after her debut when she lost in the first round as a 16-year-old.
"I'm not going to make excuses for myself. I played terrible. I had a feeling that almost every shot I hit, it was out," added the Australian Open champion, who committed 59 unforced errors to her opponent's 31. © 2007 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
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