By IANS
Los Angeles : Ana Ivanovic of Serbia rose to a career-best fourth in the world rankings after beating Nadia Petrova of Russia in the final of the East West Bank Classic here.
The Serb won 7-5 6-4 Sunday to continue the form that took her to the French Open final and Wimbledon semis this year.
This was the fourth career title in six final appearances on the WTA Tour for the third seed, having earlier won in Canberra (2005), Montréal (2006) and Berlin (2007).
Petrova, on the other hand, fell to 7-8 in finals.
The 19-year-old’s victory came hours after compatriot Novak Djokovic beat world number one Roger Federer for the Montreal Masters title.
“He played amazing, and I was motivated to do the same thing,” Ivanovic said.
Petrova, the fourth seed, set her tactics on probing Ivanovic’s backhand, but the eventual winner concentrated on using her impressive forehand.
The first set turned on three consecutive breaks of serve, started by Ivanovic, from the ninth game.
The final service break took Ivanovic to 6-5, from where she comfortably closed out the set, and effectively the match.
“It was tough at times because I has some muscle pain from yesterday and my shoulder was very tight,” said Ivanovic, who took two and a half hours to beat Jelena Jankovic in Saturday’s semi-final.
“I didn’t want to go in to a third set because I was really tired. I tried to take my chances.”
Petrova said she found Ivanovic’s forehand too strong to subdue.
“She just rips it off without thinking,” she said.
“Sometimes I think she has no idea where it’s going to go but, compared to other players, it’s by far the best forehand out there.”
The doubles final was, however, a total whitewash as number two seeds Kveta Peschke and Rennae Stubbs cruised past top seeds and French Open champions Alicia Molik and Mara Santangelo 6-0 6-1.
Peschke and Stubbs won all but 11 of the points in each set during the 43-minute rout.