Sat Mar 1 12:53:51 2008

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Dementieva rallies past Kuznetsova for Dubai crown

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Dubai, United Arab Emirates (Sports Network) - Elena Dementieva rallied from a set down and beat fellow Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova for the title at the Dubai Tennis Championships.

The eighth-seeded Dementieva earned a 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory Saturday to claim her ninth career WTA singles title and first of 2008. Her best previous finish this year was a semifinal loss to Agnes Szavay in Paris three weeks ago.

Kuznetsova, seeded second this week, lost in a final for the second time in 2008. She was the runner-up to Justine Henin at an Australian Open tuneup in Sydney.

This was also Kuznetsova's second runner-up finish at this event, as she previously lost to Henin in the 2004 title match.

After Kuznetsova captured the first set and won the first game of the second, Dementieva reeled off four straight games to take control of the second and broke serve in the ninth game to send the match to a decisive third set.

Dementieva continued her strong play and captured the first three games of the final set, but Kuznetsova won the next two with a break of serve in the fifth game. Dementieva broke right back to again take control and captured the next two games to finish the match.

It marked the third straight come-from-behind victory for Dementieva, who also came back from a set down to beat Ana Ivanovic in the quarterfinals and Francesca Schiavone in the semis.

Dementieva improved to 9-11 lifetime in finals, while Kuznetsova fell to 9-14.

Kuznetsova had won the previous three matchups with Dementieva and still leads the all-time series, 5-4.

Saturday's victory was worth a first prize of $250,000 for Dementieva.