For the rest of her career, Russian Nadia Petrova no longer will have to answer a certain question.

Petrova captured her elusive first career singles title with a 4-6 6-3 6-1 victory over fourth seed Patty Schnyder of Switzerland in the final of the Generali Ladies Linz on Sunday.

The third seed, Petrova had been winless in her four previous appearances in a final, including two this year.

Two weeks ago, she suffered a narrow loss to Czech Nicole Vaidisova in Bangkok.

Ranked ninth in the world, Petrova was the lone player within the top 10 to not own a career title. She became the 10th first-time winner on tour this year.

"This is a great step forward for me," Petrova said. "It gives me a lot of confidence for next year and allows me to aim for more finals and more titles. It was very important that this happened finally. I've now achieved everything I wanted to this year - to play very consistently, to have good results in the Grand Slams, and now to win a title. I'm very happy."

With the win, the Russian also will overtake American Venus Williams for the eighth spot in the points chase for a berth in the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Championships in Los Angeles in mid-November.

In search of her third title of the year, Schnyder was playing with a cut on her left hand that she suffered in Saturday's semi-final win over eighth-seeded Serbo-Montenegrin Ana Ivanovic.

Broken in the fourth game of the first set to fall behind 3-1, Schnyder slammed her racquet and cut her left hand when the handle bounced up from the court.

She sought treatment two games later because her hand had become swollen, and she needed painkillers to continue.

Schnyder, who fell to 4-3 all-time against Petrova, holds the seventh spot for the year-ending championship.

"I'm not too disappointed, because I've reached two finals in the past two weeks," said Schnyder, who will match her career-high ranking of eight on Monday. "I'm playing well and looking forward to competing in Los Angeles, should I qualify."