By Erik Gudris | Sunday, October 19, 2014

 

Russia's own Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova delighted the home crowd by taking the Kremlin Cup title.

Photo Credit: Kremlin Cup Facebook

In a week filled with upsets, Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova remained the last woman standing to claim the Kremlin Cup title in Moscow.

Singapore Stories: Can Halep Surprise in WTA Finals?

After week where several top seeds including Dominika Cibulkova and Ekaterina Makarova lost their opening round matches, that left the door open for several players to advance in the draw. The final featured Pavlyuchenkova against Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania.

The Romanian pulled off several upsets during the week including over Makarova and then Lucie Safarova in the semis. Pavlyuchenkova claimed the opening set only to watch Begu grab hold of an early break in the second set. That allowed Begu to clinch that set and force a decider.

Yet Pavlyuchenkova saved her best tennis for the final set. Racing out to a quick lead, she never looked back as she secured the 6-4, 5-7, 6-1 victory.

"I think I was playing well at the beginning, so I got that break and went up 4-1, but then Irina probably got a little bit more relaxed and started serving a lot better," Pavlyuchenkova said to WTA.com. "She served well the whole match actually, so it wasn't easy to break her at all in the match today. I'm happy I could regroup in the third set and win this title at home. I'm extremely happy."

Moscow is now the seventh career title for Pavlyuchenkova and also equals her biggest title win when she claimed the Paris Indoors earlier this year. Pavlyuchenkova is also the fourth Russian woman ever to win the event.

Fellow countrywomen Anastasia Myskina, Anna Chakvetadze and Elena Dementieva also won it in years past.