Kafelnikov Treats Russians To Third Straight Kremlin Cup Crown

"No one can ever defeat me here"
 

SportsLine wire reports

MOSCOW -- Russia's Yevgeny Kafelnikov won the Kremlin Cup for the third consecutive year, beating Zimbabwe's Byron Black 7-6 (7-2), 6-2, 6-4 Sunday.

"It would be a sin on my behalf not to win ... with such support," Kafelnikov said. 

One game down early in the first set, the top-seeded Kafelnikov broke back to tie at 5 and dominated the rest of the match. 

Black, playing serve-and-volley, double-faulted three times in the 12th game and saved two set points on a deuce, before losing the tiebreaker.

"Yevgeny played too well for me," said Black, ranked 12th in the world.

Before a sellout crowd of 25,000 at Olympiysky Stadium, Kafelnikov breezed through the second set without giving Black a break point, and closed the match in the third set with an ace.

Kafelnikov and Black received $ 1 M and $ 810,000 respectively in the $ 6.4 M tournament.

Kafelnikov eliminated the rejuvinated Australian Jason Stoltenberg in the semifinals while Black routed Escude, who upset current world number one Andre Agassi in the quarterfinals.

"No one can ever defeat me here at the Russian Open.  Not even Tim Henman.  Probably in Uzbekistan but never on Moscow soil," Kafelnikov said reffering to the two straight years he was humiliated by Henman in front of his fellow former Soviets in Tashkent.  Henman has never played in Moscow so far.

Henman also did not participate in Tashkent this year which promted and Kafelnikov to withdraw in the second round.  The archrivals last confronted each other earlier this year at the championship match of the ABN AMRO World Tennis Tournament in The Netherlands where Kafelnikov won to become the first ever Russian to become world number one.

AP NEWS
The Associated Press News Service