SARASOTA, Fla., April 7 (UPI) -- Jelena Dokic, the top seed, rolled over No. 10 Tatiana Panova of Russia, 6-2, 6-2, to win her fourth career WTA title at the inaugural $140,000 Sarasota Open on Sunday.
Dokic, who collected the $22,000 top prize at the claycourt event, was forced to withdraw from the Paris Indoor final against Venus Williams in February because of a strain in her right thigh.
A Wimbledon semifinalist in 2000, Dokic, from Yugoslavia, captured the Rome, Tokyo and Moscow titles last year and reached the finals at Bahia, Zurich and Linz. The teenager climbed to a career-high No. 6 in the WTA rankings two months ago.
Panova finished as the runner-up in her second tour event this year. The 25-year-old also fell to Israel's Anna Smashnova at Auckland, New Zealand in January.
Ranked 25th in the world, Panova outdueled second-seeded Meghann Shaughnessy of the United States in the semifinals at the Meadows Country Club. That win helped her inch closer to breaking into the the WTA top 20, her stated goal for the 2002 season.
