Seles Rides Comeback to Oklahoma City Title

Monica Seles completed her return from a foot injury by beating Nathalie Dechy of France in straight sets Sunday to win the $180,000 IGA SuperThrift Tennis Classic at Oklahoma City.

Seles won, 6-1, 7-6 (3), in 75 minutes to cap a week in which she didn’t lose a set and was broken only twice.

Ranked No. 14 in the world and seeded No. 2, Seles had not played in a tournament since losing the final of the Princess Cup in Tokyo to Lindsay Davenport in late September. Since then, she has been recovering from a stress fracture in her right foot.

“I think I’m just really happy that I have no pain anywhere in my feet,” she said. “Hopefully the doctor’s going to clear me in about 10 days so I’ll be able to run and do sprints, and I think that’s going to help my general conditioning.”

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Switzerland’s Marc Rosset upset Yevgeny Kafelnikov, 6-4, 6-4, at London to win the AXA Cup in a feisty title match in which Rosset contended the top-seeded Russian tried to smash him with the ball.

“He tried to hit me a couple of times at the net and that gave me some special anger to beat him,” said Rosset.

Kafelnikov explained: “Marc has a big reach when you go for the lines so I was going for his body to try and win the point.”

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At Mexico City, Argentina’s Juan Ignacio Chela defeated compatriot Mariano Puerta, 6-4, 7-6 (4), in the final.