WARSAW, Poland, May 7 (UPI) -- Top seed Kim Clijsters of Belgium beat Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia, 7-5, 6-2, to win the J&S Cup tennis tournament at Warsaw, Poland, Sunday.
It was the first clay-court crown for the former world No. 1 since the 2003 Italian Open.
Clijsters, who has been hampered by numerous injuries in the past year, improved her lifetime record against Kuznetsova to 6-1, and avenged a loss to Kuznetsova in last year's J&S Cup semifinals.
"I constructed points very well today, I was very patient and waited for the opportunities to hit my winners," Clijsters said. "I thought I was very consistent. We had some great rallies, which were fun for us both."
"I lost to a very tough opponent today," said Kuznetsova, who is ranked 10th in the world and was the No. 4 seed in the tournament. She finished as the runner-up for the third consecutive year.
"I'm really happy to have reached the final," she said.
Clijsters earned $95,500.
