Monica Seles maintained her
perfect record against Jelena Dokic to win her first title since returning from
injury at the Brazil Open.
Top seed Seles, who gave up her Yugoslav nationality to become an American, was
too good for Dokic, also a Yugoslav by birth, who became an Australian citizen
before choosing to reclaim her Yugoslav citizenship.
She won 6-3 6-3 in the women's final of the hardcourt tournament.
Seles has now beaten Dokic in all their four meetings, but it was a tough match
today, acknowledged the American.
"It was a very close match despite the scores," she said.
"Jelena was playing aggressively and not missing many balls. She was going for
the lines. I tried to raise the level of my game and to play better tennis."
After being sidelined for five months due to an injured right foot, Seles
returned in July to reach two finals and a pair of semi-finals before falling
to Czech teenager Daja Bedanova in the fourth round of the US Open.
Her title today arrives as the second of her year and 49th of her illustrious
career.
Second seed Dokic won her debut title at the Italian Open in May, defeating
Amelie Mauresmo of France.
After today's defeat, she said: "I am a bit disappointed by the way I played
today, especially since I had only lost 10 games on my way to the final. Monica
served very well and I was unable to dictate the points since I was not serving
well."
Meanwhile, fifth seed Fernando Meligeni of Brazil and unseeded Jan Vacek of the
Czech Republic won their respective men's semi-finals to advance to tomorrow's
final.
Meligeni edged seventh-seeded Agustin Calleri of Argentina 7-6 (7/5) 7-5 and
the veteran left-hander will be looking to win his first career ATP title.
The prospects of an all-Brazilian final looked good, but Vacek was too good for
sixth seed Alexandre Simoni and advanced 7-6 (7/5) 6-2.
Vacek, 25, had won just one of six career ATP matches before this week.