Tursunov slays giant-killer Guccione

Russian Davis Cup player Dmitry Tursunov [Images] ended the giantkilling run of Australian Chris Guccione to win the Sydney International on Saturday.

Tursunov, 25, won a tense final at Sydney's Olympic tennis centre 7-6, 7-6 to capture his fourth ATP title and deny the two-metre tall Guccione his maiden victory.

Ranked 125 in the world, Guccione had needed a wildcard to get into the tournament but produced the best form of his life, accounting for Lleyton Hewitt [Images], Tomas Berdych and Radek Stepanek to reach the final.

Relying heavily on his booming serve, the 22-year-old Australian comfortably held all his service games, sending down 15 aces in the match, in the last warm-up tournament before next week's Australian Open in Melbourne.

But Tursunov, who played in the Russian Davis Cup team that made last season's final, was just as effective on his serve. There were no break points in the match but it was the Russian who held his nerve better in the tiebreaks.

"I'm not really surprised that there were no breaks, because that's kind of his game," Tursunov told reporters.

"He goes for a lot of risky shots on the groundstroke on the returns, and he knows that he's not going to get broken too often.

"Besides serving well, the main concern was for me to not give him any free points.

"I had to really limit my unforced errors and make him play and go for shots that he might not be able to make."

Tursunov won his first ATP title at Mumbai in 2006 and won two more last year, at Indianapolis and Bangkok, to finish the year ranked 34 in the world.

Guccione is still searching for his first title after losing the two finals he has reached but said he was growing in confidence.

"If I keep playing this sort of tennis, and I think I've shown I can beat these guys on a consistent basis, hopefully I can keep playing like this throughout the year," he said.

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