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Moscow - Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina were victorious in an all-Russian final to win the women’s doubles event of the Kremlin Cup tennis tournament here.
On Moscow’s slow hard court, Makarova and Vesnina overcame a thrashing in the second set to defeat Maria Kirilenko and Nadia Petrova, the Olympic bronze medallists, in a super tie-break and take the match 6-3, 1-6, 10-8 on Sunday.
The top seeded pair of Makarova and Vesnina broke their second-seeded opponents at 4-3 in the first set, but were swept off the court in the second by Kirilenko and Petrova’s strong returning.
Playing in front of their home crowd was a daunting experience, Makarova said.
“In Russia against our girls, it’s always very hard to play. Especially the final in Moscow,” she said.
Vesnina said that the pair was now more confident in finals since winning in Beijing last month.
“As a result, there was more confidence for this match with, you could say, a victory in reserve,” Vesnina said.
Earlier in the tournament, Kirilenko and Petrova secured their place as the fourth and final qualifiers for the doubles event at the WTA tour championships next week by defeating Abigail Spears and Raquel Kops-Jones of the United States in the semifinal.
