Kafelnikov wins tense final

Kafelnikov, who broke his racquet after slamming it into the ground late in the final tiebreaker, said he was fortunate to win the match.

The Russian, who defeated local hero Boris Becker in a semifinal yesterday, served seven aces compared to 28 aces for Korda.

“I was lucky at the end to win,” Kafelnikov said. “It has been a long time since I won an ATP tournament. But this year has started well with this first tournament win in Halle.”

It was Kafelnikov’s 12th tournament win.

Cash wins on grass

ROEHAMPTON: Pat Cash, the Wimbledon champion a decade ago, today came through his first test at this year’s championships.

Cash, who has slumped to 433 in the rankings after a series of injuries, needed 104 minutes to readjust to grass court play at the qualifying tournament at Roehampton before beating Frenchman Thierry Guardiola in three sets.

The London-based Australian fell behind when he dropped the first set but his touch returned to the delight of the large crowd on `lucky’ Court 13 as Cash took control to win 4-6, 6-3, 6-1.

Title for Tauziat

BIRMINGHAM: Nathalie Tauziat recovered from a setdown to beat Yayuk Basuki 2-6, 6-2, 6-2 to win yesterday’s final of the $ 164,250 DFS Classic women’s grass-court tennis tournament.

The experienced Frenchwoman, who turns 30 in October and was runner up here last year, lost the first set in just 31 minutes to the number four seed from Indonesia.

“It was a tough match,” said the number two seed. “I’ve told Yayuk that she will win it next year.”

Tauziat lost five games in a row as Basuki won the first set. But she romped into a 5-0 lead in the second and tied the match up on her third set point thanks to two Basuki forehand errors.

The deciding set went with serve until Tauziat broke for 4-2.

Two games later a double fault gave Tauziat her first match point, and it was converted when Basuki sent a backhand wide.

Seles to defend title

EASTBOURNE: Monica Seles will begin the chase for her first Wimbledon crown this week by defending her title in the grass court championship at Eastbourne.

Although she has gathered a total of nine Grand Slam singles titles, the world number two has never won at the All-England Club. The closest she came was in 1992, when she was beaten by Steffi Graf and won only three games in the final.

Seles is seeded to meet Czech Jana Novotna in the final. French Open champion Iva Majoli is seeded third, but the Croatian struggles on grass and has never won a match of any description at Wimbledon. Former Wimbledon finalist Arantxa Sanchez Vicario is seeded fourth, and last year’s runner-up, Mary Joe Fernandez, is seeded fifth.

The top four seeds have a bye into the second round of the $ 450,000 event, which begins on Tuesday and concludes two days before the start of Wimbledon.