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Moscow - Slovakia's eighth seed Dominika Cibulkova battled back from a set down to win her first ever title beating Kaia Kanepi of Estonia in the final of the joint WTA/ATP 1.5-million-dollar Kremlin Cup here on Sunday.
Cibulkova won a tough three-setter 3-6, 7-6 (7/1), 7-5 in two hours 40 minutes to record her first ever win over Kanepi in their third meeting.
"I've been close to this win for a long time and I'm so happy to finally clinch my first title," Cibulkova said.
"It's the end of the season, which is probably my career's best. It just couldn't finish better as I finally got my first WTA win after finishing runner-up in Linz last week. I'm really happy now!"
Kanepi, 26, who won her first WTA title last year in Palermo, looked slightly more focused from the start breaking halfway into the opening set for a comfortable 4-1 lead.
Cibulkova, who lost all three of her previous WTA finals, including her runner-up finish in Linz last week, failed to close the gap leaving Kanepi with a one-set lead after 41 minute.
No big serves were produced in the second set, which went to a tiebreak with Bratislava resident Cibulkova proving the more accurate to level at one set all after one hour 37 minutes.
In the deciding set the 22-year-old Slovak produced three breaks to win the set and the match.
Cibulkova received a silver trophy and $118 000 of prize cash, while runner-up Kanepi pocketed $64 000.
Defending Kremlin Cup champion and second seed Viktor Troicki and top seeded Janko Tipsarevic meet in an all-Serbian ATP final later on Sunday.
