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On the women's side, Maleeva captured her ninth career title and her third victory here. She won the Kremlin Cup in 1994 and '95.
Maleeva, the world No. 23, upset top-seeded and No. 2 Venus Williams in the second round, and fifth-seeded and world No. 7 Amelie Mauresmo before beating No. 8 Davenport in what she called the greatest week of her career.
Maleeva's previous record for defeating top 10 players came in 1995 in Berlin, when she defeated No. 3 Mary Pierce and No. 10 Natasha Zvereva.
"I never managed to overcome three top 10 players in one event before," Maleeva said. "I'm happy and it is definitely the best week in my career."
Davenport jumped to an early lead with a break in the opening game, but Maleeva broke back in the 10th game to level 5-5. Love-40 down on her serve
in the next game, the Bulgarian saved three breakpoints only to double-fault on a deuce. Davenport served for the set.
Capitalizing on Davenport's poor return play in the second set, Maleeva broke the American in the sixth game to win the set and stay in the match.
After trading breaks early in the decisive third set, Davenport fired three of her 15 aces in the match to deny Maleeva two breakpoints in the ninth game and force a tiebreaker.
"I did serve well today, but I didn't put enough pressure on her [Maleeva's]second serve," Davenport said.
Maleeva, who said it has always been her dream to defeat Davenport, whom she considers the best player on the tour, prevailed on the tiebreaker and will now move into the top 20 in the WTA rankings next week.
By reaching the finals in Moscow, Davenport will move one position up in the rankings and has secured the No. 15 spot in the season-ending WTA
Championships in Los Angeles on Nov. 6-11.
Davenport injured her right knee last November and underwent surgery in January, keeping her out of most tournaments this year. She resumed playing at
the end of July and reached at least the semifinal in the six tournaments she played in before coming to Moscow.
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Kudos to Maggie
