Elena Dementieva beat fellow Russian Elena Vesnina 6-4 6-1 at the ASB Classic in Auckland to win her first title of 2009, and 12th in her career.
The top-seeded Dementieva had a slow start in her 25th Sony Ericsson WTA Tour singles final. The unseeded Vesnina broke Dementieva in the third game of the match and built triple break point in the fifth game, sitting on the verge of a 4-1 lead. But the more experienced Dementieva won five of the next six games, stole the first set from Vesnina, and then cruised through the second set.
Dementieva didn’t drop a single set en route to the trophy, although in her first match of the week against Chan Yung-Jan she did trail 5-1 in the first set.
This week in Auckland, the world No.76 Vesnina, who was playing her first singles final, scored her seventh career win over a Top 20 player, it was against Caroline Wozniacki, and surpassed $1 million in career prize money.
