London - AFP
Spaniard Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez beat Kazakhstan's Galina Voskoboeva in the final of the $220,000 Hansol Korea Open on Sunday to win her fifth WTA title. The 29-year-old Martinez Sanchez defeated Voskoboeva, a first-time WTA finalist, 7-6 7-6 to win her first hardcourt tournament on the WTA and $37,000 in prize money. The two players had marched to the final without losing a set on the way, with the unseeded Voskoboeva producing two upsets when she put out eighth seed Ekaterina Makarova and fifth seed Polona Hercog. But the sixth-seeded Spaniard prevailed on Sunday with her tricky left-handed serve and outstanding net play. She blanked the 26-year-old Kazakh 7-0 in the first set tie-break, then held off three set points to take the second set to a tiebreak, and rolled through that one 7-2. Sunday's two-hour showdown was the sixth WTA final for Martinez Sanchez but her first on a hard court. She is also the first Spaniard to win a WTA title on the surface since Anabel Medina Garrigues won the Canberra International in Australia in January 2006. Martinez Sanchez' first five finals, of which she won four, were all on clay.