Monica Seles maintained her perfect record against Jelena Dokic to win her first title since returning from injury at the Brazil Open in Salvador. Top seed Seles, who gave up her Yugoslav nationality to become an American, was too good for Dokic, also a Yugoslav by birth, who became an Australian citizen before choosing to reclaim her Yugoslav citizenship.
She won 6-3 6-3 in the women's final of the hardcourt tournament. Seles has now beaten Dokic in all their four meetings, but it was a tough match today, acknowledged the American.
"It was a very close match despite the scores," she said. "Jelena was playing aggressively and not missing many balls. She was going for the lines. I tried to raise the level of my game and to play better tennis."
Meanwhile, fifth seed Fernando Meligeni of Brazil and unseeded Jan Vacek of the Czech Republic won their respective men's semi-finals to advance to tomorrow's final. Meligeni edged seventh-seeded Agustin Calleri of Argentina 7-6 (7/5) 7-5 and the veteran left-hander will be looking to win his first career ATP title.
The prospects of an all-Brazilian final looked good, but Vacek was too good for sixth seed Alexandre Simoni and advanced 7-6 (7/5) 6-2. Vacek, 25, had won just one of six career ATP matches before this week.
Filed by Sinéad Kissane
