Tauziat upsets Schett in Kremlin Cup

Playing her reliable serve-and-volley game, Nathalie Tauziat upset Barbara Schett in the Kremlin Cup today 2-6, 6-4, 6-1 for the biggest win of her career.

Playing her reliable serve-and-volley game, Nathalie Tauziat upset Barbara Schett in the Kremlin Cup today 2-6, 6-4, 6-1 for the biggest win of her career.

The 32-year-old Tauziat, one of the elders of the women's circuit, shrugged off an embarrassing appearance during the Fed Cup in Moscow last April when she lost all three games she played, and took her first trophy since 1997.

"I had a bad memory about Moscow in April when I played in the Fed Cup, but I came back and had a good week here," said Tauziat, who had four titles since turning pro in 1984.

The Frenchwoman took home $150,000 and 260 points and returned to her career-high ranking of seventh in the world. She now has a chance for one of the final spots at next month's Chase Championships in New York.

Schett, seeded second, was dominant in the first set, breaking Tauziat in the sixth and eight games with strong baseline tennis. She clinched the first game to love and won the last when Tauziat buried a forehand volley into the net.

"I slept badly last night and woke up tired, and couldn't find my rhythm in the first set," Tauziat said.

But she stepped up in the second set, repeatedly approaching to the net to counter the harder hitting Schett, who refused to come up from the baseline. Ranked 10th in the world, Tauziat broke Schett on the first game and then held serve on the second with an ace.

"She was serving too well for me today," Schett said of Tauziat after the match.

Pressure on the World No 8 mounted after that, and she was just barely able to hold off Tauziat in the third game, who came back from 40-love but lost at deuce.

Tauziat was broken back in the sixth game when she double faulted, but she broke Schett again immediately coming to the net and hitting a volley winning.

The 23-year-old Schett, playing her first final of the year, could not keep up in the third set, getting broken in the first after going up 40-15. In the fourth, Tauziat fired two aces to take the game.

"I've played her before and I think the third set was one of the best sets she ever played," Schett said afterward.

After breaking Schett in the fifth when the Austrian again hit the ball into the net, Tauziat cruised home, easily holding her serve on Schett errors and then breaking her in the last game at 0-40 on a backhand return down the left-hand side.

In doubles action, third seeds Lisa Raymond and Rennae Stubbs easily swept aside Anke Huber and Julie Halard-Decugis, 6-1, 6-0.

The American Raymond and Stubbs, from Australia, never gave a chance to Huber and Halard-Decugis, of Germany and France. They wrapped up the match in 43 minutes.