Paes, Kuznetsova triumph at French Open

Russia's Svetlana Kuznetsova poses with her trophy near the Eiffel Tower in Paris after winning against her compatriot Dinara Safina in the women's final at the French Open tennis tournament at Roland Garros on Saturday.

Kuznetsova won her second Grand Slam title when she outplayed fellow Russian and world number one Safina 6-4, 6-2 in the final.

The seventh-seeded Kuznetsova, US Open champion in 2004, dictated the points consistently and prevailed after 74 minutes on Centre Court to deny Safina a first Grand Slam title.

Kuznetsova, President of the French Tennis Federation (FFT) Jean Gachassin, former tennis great Steffi Graf and Safina pose for the cameras after the women's final.

"Today, when I was coming out on court I knew that everything would be alright," said Kuznetsova. "I was pretty calmed down.

"(Safina) is better than me at the moment, she is the world number one, but she was too tight."

For Safina it was a familiar story, following her defeat by Ana Ivanovic in last year's final.

"I am in the same situation as last year," she told the 15,000 crowd. "Hopefully one day I can win here."

Leander Paes and Lukas Dlouhy staged a magnificent recovery to beat South Africa's Wesley Moodie and Belgium's Dick Norman and win the men's doubles title at the French Open.

The third seeded Indo-Czech pair turned in a solid display after losing the first set to emerge 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 winners over their unseeded opponents in the final.

For 35 year-old Indian ace Paes, this was his third French Open doubles crown, having won the clay-court title in 1999 and 2001 with estranged partner Mahesh Bhupathi. In the process, he swelled his Grand Slam collection to nine titles.

It is almost after a gap of three years that Paes won men's doubles title at a major, since winning the 2006 US Open with Martin Damm.