By Adrianna Outlaw
© Kremlin Cup

(October 24, 2010) A streaking Victoria Azarenka reeled off six straight games to close out a 6-3, 6-4 conquest of doubles partner Maria Kirilenko and capture the Kremlin Cup championship today. It was the second title of the season for Azarenka, who beat another Russian, Maria Sharapova, to win Stanford in July.

"It was a great week for me," said Azarenka, who opened the week qualifying for the WTA Tour Championships in Doha starting on Tuesday. "Today we showed some excellent tennis and some great rallies. I hope the crowd enjoyed it. Maria played really well and had a lot of motivation for her home-town final. The crowd was obviously for her, but that just motivated me even more. We showed some great tennis and I’m just happy to win another title. It brings extra confidence for Doha —  I have a flight there tonight so I’m excited to arrive on a high."

The 24th-ranked Kirilenko had surrendered just nine games in reaching the final, including a 6-1, 6-1 thrashing of Vera Dushevina in Saturday's semifinals. But playing in front of a pro-Kirilenko crowd that included former World No. 1 Marat Safin, the Moscow native could not combat Azarenka's superior power in a final featuring doubles partners.

Kirilenko, who dropped to 5-4 in nine career finals, is projected to return to the top 20 when the new rankings are released tomorrow.

“I’m happy to have played a great final, I really wanted to win this tournament but Vika was better than me today," Kirilenko said. "It’s nice to finish the year with a final and it gives me a desire to work harder and get better. I felt so much support from the crowd and it really helped me all week to play well. I’m happy that from tomorrow I can put my rackets and tennis clothes away for a couple of weeks!"

The second-seeded Azarenka dropped only one set, to first-round opponent Andrea Petkovic, in taking the title.

The sixth-seeded Kirilenko had won two of three matches against Azarenka, but the 10th-ranked Belarusian won their most recent clash, 6-4, 6-1, in Montreal in August.



Hitting off her back foot, Kirilenko sprayed a forehand wide to face triple break point in the fifth game. Kirlenko put a backhand down the line into net as Azarenka broke for 3-2 and quickly consolidated for 4-2.

Kirilenko burst out to a 4-0 lead in the second set, but Azarenka began to blow points open with her deep drives and blasted her way back into the match. On her third championship point, Azarenka followed a forehand to hit and knocked off a forehand volley to seal the win.