Florianopolis Gallery: An Electric Finish

The WTA Brasil Tennis Cup had a very exciting last few days, from Olga Puchkova's semifinal upset of Venus Williams to Monica Niculescu's nail-biting win in the final. Come into the gallery...

Published March 03, 2013 12:00

Kristina Mladenovic was playing some sparkling tennis in her first three matches in Florianopolis.

But Monica Niculescu was a roadblock to say the least in the semifinals, beating Mladenovic, 60 62.

Venus Williams was the No.1 seed and heavy favorite to win, the only Top 4 seed to make the semis.

But Olga Puchkova never gave up and managed the impossible against Williams, prevailing 46 64 75.

Friday's third match was the doubles final, with Anne Keothavong and Valeria Savinykh in action.

But Anabel Medina Garrigues and Yaroslava Shvedova were too tough, winning the final in two, 60 64.

Medina Garrigues and Shvedova have both won two Grand Slam doubles titles with other partners.

Keothavong was playing her first WTA final of any kind, having been to many, many semifinals before.

Shvedova has two Grand Slams with Vania King, Medina Garrigues two with Virginia Ruano Pascual.

Puchkova had taken out the No.1 and No.3 seeds en route to her third WTA final, but Niculescu loomed.

Puchkova fought her hardest and slammed her huge groundstrokes her hardest, but came up short.

Niculescu beat Puchkova, 62 46 64, and collected her first WTA title at the WTA Brasil Tennis Cup.

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