TENNIS: Roger Federer began his season in familiar fashion with victory in the Qatar Open final in Doha on Saturday. Switzerland's world number one posted a 6-3, 7-6 (7-5) victory over French teenager Gael Monfils to win the season-opening €800,000 tournament.
The defending champion beat the seventh-seeded French 19-year-old in an hour and 18 minutes and now has won his last nine matches in Doha without dropping a set.
He also became the first player since Stefan Edberg in 1994-95 to win back-to-back titles at the event.
Federer has topped the men's rankings for 101 weeks and reached 12 finals in 2005, winning all bar his last when David Nalbandian produced a shock results at the Masters Cup in Shanghai.
The 24-year-old Federer has won 11 titles in each of the last two years and 34 overall.
"It's really nice to win back-to-back titles, it makes you want to come back and win a third time," said Federer.
The champion also had positive words for Monfils, who pressed hard to level the match in the second set.
"He is young, has a different style from other players and a great opportunity to do very well in the future," Federer observed.
World number nine and top seed Ivan Ljubicic dethroned twice champion Carlos Moya of Spain 7-6, 6-2 to win the Chennai Open yesterday.
The Croat showed no ill effects from his tough three-set semi-final win over Belgian Kristof Vliegen earlier in the day, overpowering crowd favourite Moya in an engrossing tussle in the southern Indian city.
The first set lasted close to an hour. Trailing 5-6 in the tie-break, the 26-year-old Ljubicic, who led his country to their maiden Davis Cup title last year, rifled in two aces to put the pressure on the Spaniard who then double-faulted to lose the set.
Moya, forced to come through four gruelling three-setters to reach the final, was broken in the third and fifth games in the second set.
France's Florent Serra won his second ATP Tour title with a 6-3, 6-4 victory over Belgium's Xavier Malisse at the Australian hardcourt championships in Adelaide, also yesterday .
Serra, who won his first title last September in Bucharest, proved too strong for Malisse, saving all six break points the Belgian held.
US Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova overcame a dogged Shinobu Asagoe 6-1, 5-7, 7-5 yesterday to advance to the second round of the Sydney International tournament.
The sixth-seeded Russian breezed through the first set before the Japanese player fought back.
Kuznetsova, who beat compatriot Elena Dementieva in the 2004 US Open final, regained her composure to wrap up the third set.
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