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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted at 4:36 a.m., Saturday, January 17, 2009

Tennis: Nalbandian wins Sydney International

Associated Press

SYDNEY, Australia — David Nalbandian overcame an inconsistent serve and a string of unforced errors to defeat Jarkko Nieminen 6-3, 6-7 (9), 6-2 Saturday in the Sydney International final.

Bob and Mike Bryan of the United States won the doubles title with a 6-1, 7-6 (3) victory over Daniel Nestor and Nenad Zimonjic.

Nalbandian dominated early before Nieminen, who stopped defending Australian Open champion Novak Djokovic in the semifinals, staged a second-set resurgence.

Nieminen appeared to be bothered by a leg cramp late in the match when Nalbandian broke the Finnish player in his last two service games.

Nalbandian had 56 unforced errors while Nieminen had 49. Each player had four double faults.

The 10th-seeded Nalbandian moves on to the Australian Open, where he will face Marc Gicquel of France on Monday.

The Bryan twins reversed the result of the 2008 Tennis Masters Cup doubles final, where Nestor and Zimonjic won in straight sets.

"It felt good to be the underdogs for once," Mike Bryan said. "When we lost that match last year, it really gave us extra motivation to work hard in the offseason. We worked on a few things and it paid off."