Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova beat Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro 7-5, 6-2 on Saturday to win the Portugal Open and claim her first trophy on clay.

The third-seeded champion, coached by former Swiss great Martina Hingis, earned the fifth title of her career while leaving her opponent winless from five finals.

One of those was here a year ago, when Suarez Navarro was unable to close it out after winning the first set against Kaia Kanepi, an opponent she beat in the semifinals this week.

The winner now owns five career titles, including two this season after winning the Monterrey event for a third time. She improved her record over Suarez Navarro to 4-0 in WTA play and 5-0 including a Challenger win on clay in 2008.

Pavlyuchenkova has been working with Hingis officially for just a few weeks and the analytic game style and fighting determination of Switzerland’s five-time grand slam champion may be rubbing off on the 21-year-old right-hander.
Suarez Navarro has now lost two finals in 2013 after going down in Acapulco to 2012 Roland Garros finalist Sara Errani. 

(AFP)