VIENNA, 18 October 2004 — Feliciano Lopez captured the first title of his career in a marathon final at the 682,750-euro ATP event here yesterday.

The 23-year-old Spaniard may also have forced himself into contention for a place in the Davis Cup final in Seville in six weeks time after beating Guillermo Canas 6-4, 1-6, 7-5, 3-6, 7-5 but it took him so long to do it that it almost caused him to miss his flight to Madrid.

There were many moments during a mesmerizing three-hour, 35-minute struggle when it seemed that Canas, with the great stamina and the big heart, would force his way through to another notable success, but in the end tiredness contributed to his downfall.

Davydenko Subdues Rusedski in Moscow

Nikolay Davydenko beat Britain’s Greg Rusedski 3-6, 6-3, 7-5 in a tightly contested Kremlin Cup final to win his first Moscow title yesterday.

The eighth-seeded Russian saved three match points in the 10th game of the final set before breaking Rusedski in the next game and then served out for the match on his second opportunity.

Davydenko had also saved one match point and overcome leg cramps as he beat his Russian Davis Cup teammate Mikhail Youzhny in a three-hour semifinal on Saturday.

Rusedski had also had to fight his way to the final. He outlasted second seed Swede Joachim Johansson in three hard tie-break sets in Friday’s quarterfinals before dismantling third-seeded Slovak Dominik Hrbaty in the semifinals.

Davydenko’s win completed a sweep of Kremlin Cup crowns for the hosts after Anastasia Myskina crushed her close friend Elena Dementieva 7-5, 6-0 in the all-Russian women’s final earlier in the day. After a close first set, with plenty of errors and poor serving from both sides, the third-seeded Myskina raced through the second against a hapless Dementieva in just 24 minutes.

In Paris in June, Myskina crushed her close friend 6-1 6-2 in less than an hour to become the first Russian woman to win a grand slam title.

In yesterday’s 10th meeting between the two, the fifth-seeded Dementieva served for the first set at 5-3, but once again her serve let her down as Myskina broke to stay in the set and never looked back, sweeping the next eight games.