PARIS: New world No. 1 Kim Clijsters was defeated 6-4, 6-3 by Czech fourth seed Petra Kvitova in the Paris Open final Sunday. Top seed Clijsters, who won the Australian Open last month before helping Belgium into the Fed Cup last four, secured her place as the new No. 1 by reaching the semifinals at the Stade Coubertin. Earlier, the American pairing of Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Meghann Shaughnessy won their first doubles title together by beating Vera Dushevina and Ekaterina Makarova of Russia 6-4, 6-2. Mattek-Sands also reached the semifinals in the singles, losing to Kvitova 6-2, 6-0. Clijsters defeated Estonia's Kaia Kanepi 6-1 7-5 in the other semis. Hantuchova wins Fourth-seeded Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia claimed her first title in four years after she outclassed Italian Sara Errani 6-0, 6-2 in the Pattaya Open final Sunday. The 32th-ranked Slovak collected her fourth career title, her first since Linz in 2007. Ther victory improves Hantuchova's record against the Italian to 3-1. Hantuchova used her forehand to pressure Errani from start of the match and the 27-year-old never let her opponent into the match as she raced to a 5-0 lead in the first set in just 20 minutes. She hit her first two match points into the net but converted the third when Errani's forehand went long. Errani got on the scoreboard with a break to start the second set but was unable to maintain the momentum and dropped the next four games to trail 4-1. The Italian then held her serve to win just her second game of the match before Hantuchova wrapped up the match in 76 minutes with a forehand winner. Soderling keeps crown French Open finalist Robin Soderling retained his ATP Rotterdam title with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 defeat of France's Jo-Wilfried Tsonga here Sunday. World No. 4 Soderling, the top seed, ran his record over Tsonga to 4-0 after losing his first set in the series. The Swede, retianing atitle for the first time in his career, now owns eight trophys from 18 ATP finals. Soderling maintained his domination over Frenchmen as he won an eighth consecutive match against a player from France. In the semifinals, Soderling defeated Serbian Viktor Troicki 7-5, 6-4 and Tsonga downed Ivan Ljubicic 6-4, 7-6 (8-6). Almagro bags title Nicolas Almagro of Spain won his eighth ATP title, defeating Alexandr Dolgopolov of Ukraine 6-3, 7-6 (3) in the final Saturday of the Brazil Open. The Spaniard also won this event in 2008 and has won all eight of his tournament titles on clay. Dolgopolov, who reached the quarterfinals last month in the Australian Open, was appearing in his first ATP final. Almagro and Dolgopolov had played twice before, splitting their matches. Verdasco-Raonic final Defending champion Fernando Verdasco will face unseeded Canadian Milos Raonic in Sunday's final of the 600,000-dollar ATP SAP Open after defeating Juan Martin del Potro 6-4, 6-4. Top seed Verdasco needed one hour and 36 minutes Saturday to beat del Potro, the 2009 US Open champion who was playing his first semifinal in more than a year. The emerging Raonic, 20, advanced to his first ATP Tour final in a walkover after second-seeded Frenchman Gael Monfils withdrew from the tournament with a left wrist injury. Roland Garros to remain venue for French Open Tradition won the day Sunday when the French Tennis Federation decided to keep the French Open at a renovated Roland Garros and rejected plans to move the tournament to the Paris suburbs from 2016. A federation statement said delegates had opted for the “enlargement and modernization of the historic site at Porte d'Auteuil for the new Roland Garros”. Versailles, Gonesse and a site in Marne-la-Vallee close to Disneyland Paris had bid to take the only clay court Grand Slam out of the French capital and offer more space. However, in a federation ballot Sunday, Gonesse lost in the first round, Versailles in the second with Paris then taking 70 percent of the vote in the final round against Marne-la-Vallee. Although, the ageing and cramped Roland Garros in the west of Paris near the Bois de Boulogne will now be redeveloped it is still likely to be the smallest grand slam venue.
