Russians on top in Madrid

Russian pair Maria Sharapova and Svetlana Kuznetsova both won their respective Red Group matches in the season-ending WTA Tour Championships in Madrid.

Sharapova, the reigning US Open champion, justified her second seeding with a 6-4 6-4 win over Kim Clijsters of Belgium.

Sharapova, the 2004 Wimbledon champion, made a break of serve in the fifth game and successfully held her own to claim the first set.

The 19-year-old Siberia-born player had saved three break-points in game four of the second set and then broke her Belgian opponent in the next game.

The second seed then broke sixth-ranked Clijsters again but the former US Open champion was not beaten yet.

She broke back but the Russian woman still had the opportunity to serve out for the match because of her earlier break of serve.

She saved a break-point before sealing the win with an ace – it was her second win this week here in the round-robin format of the tournament featuring the top eight players of 2006.

Kuznetsova, who won the US Open title in 2004 in a year when Russian women took three of the four available grand slam crowns – Anastasia Myskina also won the French Open – also needed only two sets to dispatch her countrywoman Elena Dementieva.

Seventh-seeded Dementieva now cannot win the tournament after her second successive loss.

Kuznetsova had to battle to take the first set 7-5 but was more dominant in the second which she won 6-3.