Kafelnikov Captures Kremlin

Russia's Yevgeny Kafelnikov won the Kremlin Cup for the third straight year, beating Zimbabwe's Byron Black 7-6 (7-2), 6-4 Sunday.

"It would be a sin on my behalf not to win ... with such support," Kafelnikov said.

One game down early in the first set, the top-seeded Kafelnikov broke back to tie 5-5 and dominated the rest of the match.

Black, playing serve-and-volley, double-faulted three times in the 12th game and saved two set points on a deuce, before losing the tiebreaker.

"Yevgeny played too well for me," said Black, ranked 80th in the world.

Before a sellout crowd of 15,000 at Olympiysky Stadium, Kafelnikov breezed through the second set without giving Black a break point, and closed the match with an ace.

Kafelnikov, ranked second in the world behind Andre Agassi, won the Australian Open and a tournament at Rotterdam earlier this year.

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