CAROLINE WOZNIACKI HAS clinched the 20th title of her career with a tough three-set victory over Sam Stosur in the Kremlin Cup final.
The Danish former world number one fought back from a break down in the final set to finally clinch the 6-2 4-6 7-5 victory in two hours and 14 minutes.
The result leaves Stosur without a title since her triumph at the US Open last year.
Wozniacki looked on track for an easy victory when she broke Stosur’s serve three times on her way to a comfortable first set.
Both players struggled on serve on the second with the first six games going the way of the returner.
Wozniacki finally bucked the trend when she held to love, but Stosur, who had won her serve just once up until that point, suddenly found her groove and won the final three games of the set to send the match into a deciding third set.
Stosur carried her momentum into the decider with an early break to take a 3-1 lead, but Wozniacki wasn’t going down without a fight.
She got back on level terms and fought off a series of break points at 4-4 before finally clinching the match following a Stosur error three games later.
The Australian was uncharacteristically broken eight times throughout the match and won just 58 percent of points on her normally reliable first serve.
Meanwhile, Andreas Seppi claimed his second ATP Tour title of the year after defeating Brazilian Thomaz Belluci in the men’s decider.
Seppi, the second seed in Moscow, recovered from a set down to win 3-6 7-6 (7-3) 6-3 in two hours 25 minutes.
Fourth-seeded Belluci twice served for the match in the second set before the Italian fought back to win the tie-breaker and then went on to break twice in the third set to clinch the match.
The title is Seppi’s second of the year after also winning in Belgrade in May.
He is the first Italian to win two ATP titles in a season since Davide Sanguinetti in 2002.
