SYDNEY: Elena Dementieva defended her Sydney International title today, leaving Serena Williams with injury concerns just days out from the Australian Open.

The Russian fifth seed was always in control of the final, winning 6-3, 6-2 in just 75 minutes but the American World No 1 appeared inconvenienced by a troublesome left knee she had strapped for the match. Williams, who is going into next week’s opening Grand Slam as defending champion, favoured the knee and she was unusually subdued during the final.

The match ended in an anti-climax with Dementieva holding three match points on Serena’s serve and thumping a return winner for the championship. It was Dementieva’s 15th career title and she became the first player to win back-to-back titles here since Martina Hingis in 2001-02.

The Russian has now won six of her last seven finals and it was her fifth victory against Williams in 12 encounters. She beat Williams in the semi-finals of last year’s event.

Dementieva broke Williams’s serve five times and dominated the points, 70-47. The top seed committed 40 unforced errors in the 17 games.

On the men’s draw, Marcos Baghdatis set up championship match with Frenchman Richard Gasquet. The 42nd-ranked Cypriot, an Australian Open finalist, battled for almost three hours before prevailing 6-4, 6-7 (7/9), 7-6 (7/5) over American Mardy Fish. Baghdatis, who lost to Roger Federer in the 2006 Australian Open final, waged a desperate struggle with Fish before claiming his eighth career final appearance on his fourth match point.

Gasquet reached his first Sydney final after a 6-3, 7-5 win over fellow Frenchman Julien Benneteau, after falling at the semi-final stage in 2007 and 2009. Gasquet is the first Frenchman since Guy Forget in 1992 to play in the Sydney final.

Kooyong Classic

Melbourne: Fernando Gonzalez wound up his formal Australian Open preparation with a defeat of Ivan Ljubicic 6-4, 7-6 (9/7) in relegation round play at the Kooyong Classic on Friday.

The programme was reduced to the Gonzalez-Ljubicic match after Juan Martin del Potro withdrew on Thursday from Friday’s semi-final against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga. Tsonga played a practice match against Tommy Haas, defeating the veteran German 6-4, 6-3.

Tsonga, the 2008 Australian Open finalist, will play for the title on Saturday against Spain’s Fernando Verdasco. Gonzalez now turns his mind to first-round Open opponent Olivier Rochus. Gonzales won both their previous meetings, at the Beijing Olympics and in Auckland in 2005.

Heineken Open

Auckland: Unseeded John Isner of the US and Frenchman Arnaud Clement overcame more fancied opponents in straight sets victories on Friday to go through to the Heineken Open final here. The towering Isner beat eighth seed Albert Montanes of Spain 6-2, 7-6, and veteran 32-year-old Clement downed fifth seed German Philipp Kohlschreiber 6-3, 7-6 in their semi-finals.

Neither had a charmed ride through to the final. Isner beat seventh seed Juan Monaco and top seed Tommy Robredo on his way through to the semi-finals, while the Frenchman defeated second seed David Ferrer and sixth seed Jurgen Melzer in the earlier rounds.

Isner used his serve to pummel Montanes in the semi-final, hitting 14 aces and landing 74 percent of his first serves.

The Spaniard meekly surrendered the first set in just over

20 minutes with a double-fault on set point but fought back gamely in the second. The 24-year-old American will be playing his second ATP final and the first since 2007.