Ana Ivanovic beats Martina Hingis to win Rogers Cup title

Serbian teenager Ana Ivanovic beat Martina Hingis 6-2, 6-3 on Monday to claim the rain-delayed $1.34 million (euro1.05 million) Rogers Cup title, her second career tournament victory and first in a WTA Tour Tier-1 event.

"This is a big step for me,'' Ivanovic said. "She's a great player. In juniors, I watched her winning grand slam titles and now I played against her and played good tennis. Basically, now I can consider myself one of the top players and that gives me motivation to work even harder to stay at this level.''

A largely pro-Hingis crowd of 8,000 was on hand in sunny weather following postponements the previous two days.

The 18-year-old Belgrade native used her powerful forehand to put shots down the lines and overwhelm the 25-year-old Swiss.

Ivanovic won $196,900 (euro152,400), while Hingis earned $99,850 (euro77,300).

In the semifinals, Hingis was able to counter Svetlana Kuznetsova's big shots with clever drops and slices, but that didn't work against Ivanovic, who did not appear intimidated by playing one of the sport's biggest names.

"There were times I felt there wasn't much I could do,'' Hingis said. "Kuznetsova would make a return error or an error in a rally, but I wasn't able to push Ivanovic to get nervous or anything to start making errors.''

The seventh-seeded Hingis, a dominant player in the late 1990s, is in her first season back on the tour after a three-year absence due to foot and ankle injuries. Her performance this week will put her back in the top 10 in the WTA Tour rankings for the first time in almost three years.

Hingis won the Rogers Cup in 1999 and 2000.

The 13th-seeded Ivanovic, who will improve her rank to 17th this week, remains unbeaten in two visits to the Rogers Cup at 7-0. Last year in Toronto, she withdrew before a scheduled third-round meeting with Kim Clijsters with an injury.

In the doubles final, Martina Navratilova of the United States and Nadia Petrova of Russia romped 6-1, 6-2 over Cara Black of Zimbabwe and Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany. Navaratilova, 49, is to retire after the Aug. 28-Sept. 10 U.S. Open.