TENNIS in DEPTH.

Mikhail Youzhny took Russian domination of the Kremlin Cup into a sixth year after seeing off Serbia’s Janko Tipsarevic to win the title in Moscow.

The event has been won by a Russian for the last five years and Youzhny made sure that trend continued after coming from behind to put in a dominant performance.

Youzhny, seeded third in the competition, had not lost a set coming into the showpiece but was soon behind after Tipsarevic took the opener 7-6 (7/5).

He responded in emphatic fashion, levelling the scores without reply to take the second set 6-0 and closed out victory by taking the decisive set 6-4.

Youzhny’s dominance in the serve was a key factor as he hit 14 aces in a match which occupied two hours and 45 minutes.

In the gentler side of the Kremlin Cup there was hardly a Russian woman to be seen anywhere, and Francesca Schiavone was the long-shot winner.

Schiavone, the No.8 seed at the Premier-level tournament, battled for two and a half hours to escape her first round match against qualifier Nuria Llagostera Vives, but didn’t drop a single set the rest of the way, including losing a total of just 12 games in her last three matches combined.

In Sunday’s final, Schiavone found herself on serve with the unseeded Olga Govortsova at 4-3 in the first set but reeled off eight games in a row to win, 63 60. During those eight games she lost only 11 points to the Belarusian.

“At the start it was a fight. We had a big game, the sixth game of the first set, that lasted about 15 minutes. I won it to go up 4-2, then I won the first set,” Schiavone said. “In the second set I was very solid. When I got to 4-0 in the second set I looked at the trophy and said to myself, ‘I’m coming to get you!’”

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