BERLIN: Russia’s Nikolay Davydenko won his 15th career title with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over France’s Paul-Henri Mathieu at the Hamburg claycourt tournament.

“I’m very happy,” said Davydenko, who delivered his victory speech to the 5,400-crowd in perfect German, a legacy of

having lived in the country for 15 years. “I’d like to thank the fans for coming. For the players, that’s very important.”

Mathieu, playing in his eighth career final, consoled himself with the knowledge that he will move back into the top 30 in the rankings. “Nikolay played very well. Undoubtedly, I used up a lot of energy in my semi-final on Saturday,” he said.

Slovenia Open

PORTOROZ: World No 1 Dinara Safina won her third title of 2009 with a 6-7 (5/7), 6-1, 7-5 win over defending champion Sara Errani of Italy in the Slovenian Open final on Sunday. The 23-year-old Russian, playing her first event since losing in the Wimbledon semi-finals over three weeks ago, captured her 12th career trophy. But Safina, still without a Grand Slam title, struggled to impress in

the three-hour marathon and will need to look sharper when the final major of the year, the US Open, gets underway in New York on August 31.

Indianapolis

INDIANAPOLIS: Robby Ginepri, who was laid low by a burst appendix earlier this year, won his second Indianapolis title with a 6-2, 6-4 victory over third seeded compatriot Sam Querrey. The 62-minute win repeated the triumph which Ginepri enjoyed four years ago and was the third overall of his career.

Ginepri, who spent nine days in hospital earlier

this year to undergo appendix surgery, had not reached a semi-final before this week since Las Vegas in March, 2008. Querrey has now lost in finals in his last two events after going down a fortnight ago on grass in Newport to Rajeev Ram. Ginepri out aced the usually big-hitting Querrey, firing four aces and 13 winners while Querrey dropped nine costly double faults.