Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova wins Istanbul Cup

Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova defeated Elena Vesnina 5-7 7-5 6-4 in the all-Russian final of the Istanbul Cup even though her opponent initially had a 7-5 4-0 lead and a 3-1 lead in the third set. The third-seeded Pavlyuchenkova lost her serve seven times, but broke her opponent eight times to win the match.
Despite losing the final on her 24th birthday, Vesnina can be satisfied with the fact that her seven-match losing streak dating back to April is over.
World No.60 Vesnina was playing her third WTA final without success, while world No.29 Pavlyuchenkova added the Istanbul Cup title to her first one won at the Monterrey Open earlier this year. (source: Sony Ericsson WTA Tour)

Top seed Vera Zvonareva and second seed Patty Schnyder were upset in the opening round of the Istanbul Cup on Tuesday.
Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland beat defending champion and top seed Elena Dementieva 6-3 6-2 to capture the Istanbul Cup on Saturday.
Elena, the 13th-ranked player in the world, won the event when France's Aravane Rezai withdrew because of the knee injury she sustained in her semifinal match against Maria Sharapova. Dementieva lead 7-6 (7-5) 3-0 when Rezai retired. This is the Russian's first singles title in 2007, and she hopes that she will continue to play well next week at Roland Garros where she's seeded 13th.



