Rita Grande wins Slovak Indoor tennis <br>October
21, 2001 <br><br>BRATISLAVA, SLOVAKIA (TICKER) --
Rita Grande of Italy rolled to her second career WTA
title on Sunday, posting a 6-1, 6-1 rout of local
favorite Martina Sucha to win the $110,000 Slovak Indoor
hardcourt tennis tournament.<br><br>It has been a
breakthrough season for the 26-year-old Grande, who climbed to
38th in the world. She captured her first career title
at the ANZ Tasmanian International in Hobart,
Australia in January.<br><br>Grande, the fourth seed,
earned a top prize of $16,000 for the victory.<br><br>"I
am very happy because this is my second career title
and my first indoors," Grande said. "The surface
suits my game because of my sliced backhand and the
ball bounces very low. This bothers other
players."<br><br>Grande also recorded a straight-sets victory over
another Slovak player, Ludmila Cervanova, in Saturday's
semifinals. She fought through a difficult quarterfinal match
on Friday, edging Bianka Lamade of Germany in a
third-set tiebreak.<br><br>"I am very satisfied with my
year because I basically had no injuries," Grande
said. "This was a great week for me. I thought I would
lose in the quarterfinals against
Bianka."<br><br>Other than her title-winning outings, Grande's only
2001 quarterfinals appearance came at Estoril in
April.<br><br>Sucha was frustrated in her first career final. She had
stunned No. 5 Denise Chladkova of the Czech Republic in
the second round.<br><br>"I am disappointed because I
had a lot of chances, but she (Grande) played better
on the important points," Sucha said. "It is very
hard to play against her sliced backhand, especially
on this surface."<br><br>Sucha, 20, also reached the
semifinals at Quebec last month and the quarterfinals at
Casablanca in July.