TENNIS ROUNDUP : Capriati Beats Fairbank to Win First Title as Pro

Jennifer Capriati won her first professional tennis title Sunday, scoring a 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 victory over Ros Fairbank in the final of the Mount Cranmore International tournament at Conway, N.H.

“It sure feels good to win my first tournament,” Capriati told the cheering crowd.

Asked how the victory compared to her Grand Slam experiences, Capriati said, “It definitely ranks high, especially because I won it--so this will be in my memory.”

Capriati will represent the United States this week in the Federation Cup in Atlanta before playing in the U.S. Open in late August.

Before this event, the 14-year-old from Tampa, Fla., made an impressive European debut by reaching the Wimbledon quarterfinals and the French Open semifinals. Since becoming a professional in March, Capriati had reached the finals in two other events.

Against Fairbank, 29, Capriati lost the first two games because of double faults and unforced errors. She then broke Fairbank in the fifth game and went on to win the first set easily.

Pete Sampras of Rancho Palos Verdes scored 10 aces in winning the men’s title, and Argentine Gabriela Sabatini won the women’s crown in the Gunze World tournament at Tokyo.

Sampras, ranked 18th in the world, scored a 6-1, 6-4 victory over No. 46 Jaime Yzaga of Peru, who made the finals when Wimbledon champion Stefan Edberg defaulted from their semifinal match because of a knee injury.

Sabatini beat Ann Grossman of the United States, 6-0, 6-1, in less than an hour. Sabatini made only 13 unforced errors in breaking all seven of Grossman’s service games.

Pieter Aldrich, unseeded and ranked 171st in the world, beat six-seeded Darren Cahill of Australia, 7-6 (12-10), 1-6, 6-1, to win the Hall of Fame tournament at Newport, R.I.

Cahill, ranked 86th in the world, appeared to have the momentum after the second set but Aldrich broke Cahill’s first two serves in the final set to lead 4-0.

Aldrich, a semifinalist at Newport in 1988, won his last two service games for his first singles title in his first appearance in a professional final.

Argentina’s Martin Jaite defeated Spain’s Sergi Bruguera, 6-3, 6-7, 6-2, 6-2, in the final of the Swiss Open at Gstaad.

After losing his service at 5-4 in the second set, Bruguera recovered from 2-4 in the tiebreaker. He clinched the 67-minute set at 7-5 with a forehand down the line.

But after the tiebreaker, Bruguera, 19, was unnerved and lost the final two sets in a little more than an hour.

Richard Fromberg of Australia won the men’s title in the Swedish Open, 6-2, 7-6, over Magnus Larsson at Bastad.

Top-seeded Italian Sandra Cecchini, who also won the Swedish title in 1987, beat Csilla Bartos of Switzerland, 6-1, 6-2, for the women’s title.