Since she wins so rarely, the Kremlin Cup organizers gave Francesca Schiavone two trophies. Photo via d.yimg.com

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A week of some of the most lackluster tennis the Moscow crowds have ever been subjected to ended with a thud Sunday, as eighth-seed Francesca Schiavone defeated unseeded Olga Govortsova 6-3, 6-0 to win the women's singles title at the Kremlin Cup.

With the win Schiavone improves her career record in finals to a still-less than impressive 2-11, which is at least much better than the 1-12 it would have been with a loss.

While she's still fairly young, the twenty-one year old Govortsova appears to be following in Schiavone's footsteps when it comes to prowess in finals.  This was Govortsova's second career WTA singles final and the three games she managed against Schiavone brought her total of career games won in finals to a whopping six. Govortsova did win two doubles titles in September, though, so she clearly isn't completely useless when trophies are on the line.

Schiavone has had about as good a year as someone can have without generating any buzz for it whatsoever.  Beginning the year outside the top thirty for the first time since 2002, Schiavone has quietly put together a real nice year, making the second week at both Wimbledon and the US Open.  With the win, Schiavone will improve to #17 in the rankings, one spot ahead of Kim Clijsters.  Since she's the type of player who once elected to play challengers in December despite already being in the top twenty, I'm betting she'll elect to enter Bali.  With two straight finals, she should be considered one of the hottest players out there.

But more than Schiavone's win, the real take away from this tournament is the fall of the Kremlin Cup.  What was once probably the biggest indoor WTA tour stop on the calendar is now a Premier/Tier III event that no top player will enter because of it being one week before the year end championships.  Even Elena Dementieva, who has said that she considers this tournament as important as the grand slams to her, didn't enter. Recent  finals of Demeniteva vs. S. Williams and Jankovic vs. Zvonareva were supplanted by Schiavone vs. Govortsova.  A marked downgrade, to be sure.