Sweet revenge for Kirilenko

Russian enters the final of Pattaya Open

Russian pin-up girl Maria Kirilenko pipped Romanian rising star Sorona Cirstea 6-2 5-7 6-4 to reach the final of the US$220,000 PTT Pattaya Open at the Dusit Thani Pattaya yesterday.

With the victory, the 26-year-old avenged her two previous losses to Cirstea in 2008 's-Hertogenbosch and in 2010 Marbella, Spain. The right-hander is eyeing her sixth career title after winning her last tournament in Seoul in 2008.

Kirilenko blasted heavy groundstrokes from corner to corner to manage a break and went up 3-2. With more errors coming off the Romanian's racquet, the Russian broke again to go up at 5-2. She set up the set point with an ace and wrapped up the 31-minute first set when Cirstea's return found the net.

The Russian rallied back from 2-4 to go up 5-4 and was serving for the match. But Cirstea did not give up easily as she launched into a series of attacking shots to break back at even at five all and led 6-5. She took the set when Kirilenko double faulted and drove a forehand long.

After a 10-minute rest before the final set, Kirilenko and Cirstea exchanged a few service games with some exciting rallies until the more determined Russian went up 5-4. After losing the first two match points, Kirilenko hit two powerful serves to close out the match in two hours and 28 minutes.

She will play the winner of the match between defending champion Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia and Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan in today's final which will be telecast live fromt 4pm on NBT.

Australia win tie

Australia yesterday took an unbeatable 3-0 lead in their best-of-five Davis Cup tie against China after Lleyton Hewitt and Chris Guccione claimed a straight sets doubles victory. Davis Cup veteran Hewitt and Guccione did not drop a service game in their 6-2 6-2 6-2 win over China's Zhang Ze and Li Zhe.

Australia were in a comfortable position going into yesterday's match after Hewitt beat China's best ranked male player Zhang Ze and Tomic bested rising youngster Wu Di in their singles matches on Friday.

The reverse singles games to be played today will be best-of-three sets.

South Korea beat Taiwan

South Korea took an irreversible 3-0 lead over Taiwan by winning an excruciating five-set doubles match in the Asia-Oceania zone Group I first round yesterday.

Lim Yong-Kyu/Seol Jae-Min edged their higher ranked opponents Liang-chi Huang/Chu-huan Yi 6-4 6-3 6-7 (5/7) 3-6 7-5 in a nail-biting match that lasted for more than four hours.

Only an hour before the crucial doubles match began, Taiwan sent in Huang instead of earlier announced Tsung-hua Yang in an apparent bid to catch South Korea off guard.

But the hosting team shed little sweat to win the two sets amid partisan support from local fans.

Taiwan stormed back hard, picking up the following two sets, but unforced errors by Huang gave South Korea the final set and the match.

Croatia lead Japan 2-1

Ivo Karlovic teamed up with Ivan Dodig to win the doubles as 2005 champions Croatia took a 2-1 lead over Japan in their Davis Cup tennis World Group first round tie yesterday.

The country's number three and four coasted to a 6-4 6-4 3-6 6-3 victory over Tatsuma Ito and Yuichi Sugita in the best-of-five contest on the indoor hard court in the western Japanese city of Miki.

On Friday, Japanese number two Go Soeda caused a stir when he stormed back from two sets down to beat Dodig 6-7 (3/7) 3-6 6-4 6-3 7-5 in an opener that lasted four hours and five minutes.

But Karlovic came to his side's rescue, firing down 18 aces on his way to a straightforward 6-4 6-4 6-3 victory over Australian Open quarter-finalist Kei Nishikori.

Uzbeks secure victory

Uzbekistan wrapped up their Davis Cup Asia Oceania Group 1 tie against New Zealand yesterday, winning the doubles in straight sets to take an unbeatable 3-0 lead in the match.

Denis Istomin and Farrukh Dustov combined to beat Dan King-Turner and Michael Venus 6-4 7-6 (7/4) 6-1 to go with their singles wins in the opening day on Friday.

In the doubles they broke New Zealand on King-Turner's serve at 3-3 in the first set and forced a tie break in the second by breaking Venus when New Zealand led 4-2 after Dustov had dropped his serve.

From then on it was all Uzbekistan as Istomin and Dustov raced through the third set 6-1 leaving two dead rubbers to be played in the reverse singles on Sunday.

In the opening singles, world number 58 Istomin cruised past Rubin Statham 6-1, 6-1, 6-3 while Dustov came from a set down to beat Venus 3-6 6-1 6-2 6-2.