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Daniilidou has fourth career win

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SEOUL, South Korea -- Eleni Daniilidou of Greece held on for a 6-3 2-6 7-6 win over fourth-seeded Ai Sugiyama in the Korea Open final Sunday to earn her fourth WTA singles title.

Trailing 4-5 in the deciding set, Daniilidou took three match points from her Japanese opponent to ultimately force the tiebreaker.

Daniilidou then collapsed on court with leg cramps at 2-2 in the 'shoot-out' and called a medical time-out before going on to take all but one point for a 7-3 win.

"I tried to play the tiebreaker as aggressively as I could. The key was to go for it," Cretan-born Daniilidou said.

"It was my mistake not calling the physio (earlier). Ai is a fighter, I had to play very precise."

The Korea Open title is Daniilidou's first hardcourt win over Sugiyama in four attempts. Sugiyama leads their head-to-heads 4-3 and last defeated Daniilidou at the French Open in June.

"The first set, I tried to do what I had to do, but she was hitting the ball deep and pushing me off the court. The second set, I think she got a bit tired," said Sugiyama.

"I knew she was hurt. It was not easy to play normal. She was still hitting the ball really good."

Going into the final, both players previous singles titles came on the same day in January 2004 -- Sugiyama at the Australian Women's Hardcourts and Daniilidou at the ASB Classic in New Zealand.

Daniilidou earlier upset third-seeded Frenchwoman Marion Bartoli in the semifinals.

Chakvetadze cruises

Russia's Anna Chakvetadze cruised past Anabel Medina Garrigues of Spain 6-1 6-4 Sunday to win the Guangzhou Open for her first WTA singles title in Beijing.

Third-seeded Chakvetadze dominated throughout to earn her fourth win from four matches against fourth-seeded Medina Garrigues, including straight sets victories this year at Berlin and Los Angeles.

Chakvetadze earned her first finals appearance after top-seeded Jelena Jankovic of Serbia retired with heat illness in Saturday's semifinals.

Medina Garrigues was chasing her third singles title of the year after wins at Canberra and Palermo.

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