Mladenovic wins St Petersburg title

ST PETERSBURG — France's Kristina Mladenovic won her maiden WTA singles title overcoming Kazakhstan's Yulia Putintseva in the final of the St Petersburg Ladies Trophy here Sunday.
 Mladenovic, ranked 51st in the world, won a tough three-setter 6-2, 6-7 (3/7), 6-4 in two hours 36 minutes to earn a 3-2 lead in their head-to-head record with 22-year-old Putintseva. 
"It was a very difficult week with plenty of close matches," Mladenovic said. 
"Today it was also tough as Yulia (Putintseva) is such a big fighter. 
"I couldn't relax and couldn't find my rhythm. All the match it was up and down and I tried really hard to stay calm and composed. 
"Finally I did everything right to win my first title and now I'm super-glad." 
The big hitting Mladenovic, 23, looked in complete command on the hard court of the Sibur Arena from the start breaking twice in the opening set for a 1-0 lead after 43 minutes. 
The pair traded breaks throughout the second set, which went to a tiebreak as the Moscow-born Putintseva's accuracy saw here pull the scores level at one set all after one hour 46 minutes on court. 
In the deciding set Mladenovic, who was contesting her fourth WTA final, produced two more breaks to take the set, the match and the title. 
In conclusion Mladenovic promised to crowd she'd be back next year to defend her trophy. 
 Svitolina claims Taiwan Open Top seed Elina Svitolina of Ukraine won the Taiwan Open Sunday after beating China's Shuai Peng in a convincing victory. 
The world ranked number 13 defeated her opponent in straight sets 6-3, 6-2, clinching her fifth WTA singles title. 
The Ukrainian, who had been struggling with flu since arriving in Taipei, played a tough quarterfinal but breezed through the semifinal Saturday, defeating Luxembourg's Mandy Minella. 
Svitolina and Peng had only played each other once before Sunday in the 2014 New Haven Open, when the Chinese emerged victorious. 
Peng, ranked 71st, returned to Tennis last March after taking a break from playing following an operation for a waist injury in 2015. 
Peng was ranked 41st in 2014 before her injury. Belgium sinks Germany Germany crashed to a third straight Davis Cup first-round exit as Steve Darcis clinched a quarterfinals berth for Belgium with victory over teenager Alexander Zverev in Frankfurt Sunday. 
Darcis needed just over three hours to secure a 2-6, 6-4, 6-4, 7-6 (10/8) win over the 19-year-old Zverev to give Belgium an unassailable 3-1 lead before the final singles rubber. 
Germany faces a fight to remain in the elite World Group after being consigned to a relegation play-off while Belgium will play either champion Argentina or Italy in the quarterfinals in April. 
 India beats New Zealand Ramkumar Ramanathan and Yuki Bhambri scored back-to-back wins over New Zealand Sunday to give India a 4-1 victory on the final day of the Davis Cup Asia/Oceania Group I tie in Pune. 
New Zealand's Finn Tearney and Jose Statham both lost their reverse singles matches, with Ramanathan beating Tearney in the fourth match 7-5, 6-1, 6-0 followed by Bhambri's 7-5, 3-6, 6-4 win over Statham in the dead rubber. 
The victory sets up a showdown with Uzbekistan in April after the Uzbeks eased past South Korea 3-1 in their first round tie played in Gimcheon, Korea Sunday. — Agencies