CANBERRA, Australia -- Israel's Anna Smashnova upset top seed Tamarine Tanasugarn 7-5, 7-6 to win the Canberra Classic
women's tennis tournament.
Smashnova won a tight match to claim her fourth career title, and her second in a fortnight, and end Tanasugarn's bid for a first WTA tour
victory.
The Thai had won eight times on the ITF tour, but was chasing her first WTA title after losing her three previous finals appearances in
Tokyo, Birmingham and Pattaya.
Tanasugarn, ranked 29th in the world, started well when she broke Smashnova's serve in the opening game, but the Israeli struck back in
the next game and eventually took the first set when she broke again in the 12th game.
The pair traded breaks again midway through the second set before 88th-ranked Smashnova sealed the match by winning the tiebreak.
Smashnova won her first title in Tashkent in 1999 and her second in Knokke-Heist a year later, but has won two more in the past fortnight
starting with her victory in the New Zealand Open last week.
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