A hard fought 6-4 6-4 victory over Elena Vesnina in the all-Russian final of the Tashkent Open gave world No.82 Alla Kudryavtseva her first WTA singles title.
The seventh-seeded Kudryatseva had never before last week been past the quarterfinals of a WTA event, but after losing the final of Guangzhou to Jarmila Groth, the Russian bettered the result next week already and defeated fourth-seeded Vesnina, who has now fallen to 0-4 in career finals. Kudryatseva won the first set with her first ace of the match on set point. She had four aces in the second set where she was able to break Vesnina with the score tied at 3-3.
Kudryatseva, who upset No.2 seed and Uzbek favorite Akgul Amanmuradova in the quarterfinals of the Tashkent Open, won $37,000 and 280 ranking points with the title which could move her up another 20 spots in the rankings.