Return Winners: A look back at the 2011 Kremlin Cup

As this week’s Kremlin Cup in Moscow winds down, let’s return to a match that announced WTA Finals debutante Dominika Cibulkova as a first-time title contender.

The Result: Dominika Cibulkova def. Kaia Kanepi, 3-6, 7-6 (1), 7-5

The Setting: Living up to its status as a WTA Premier event, the draw at the Kremlin Cup was stacked: Vera Zvonareva and Agnieszka Radwanska, two members of the Top 10, led the field, and four of the remaining six seeds were ranked in the Top 20. Eighth seed Dominika Cibulkova came into the tournament in great form, having made the final in Linz the week before.

Kanepi topped Francesca Schiavone in the second round, then defeated Svetlana Kuznetsova and Lucie Safarova to make her first title match of the year.

The Final: Though she was unseeded going into the tournament, Kanepi had to be considered the favorite to win in the finals: A three-time Grand Slam quarterfinalist (at that stage), the Estonian was the only player in the final to have won a title before (Palermo in 2010). Plus, she had a 2-0 record against a 22-year-old Cibulkova, who was playing in her fourth career final.

Kanepi won the first set, and had a chance to break late in the second (which would’ve left her serving for the championship). Instead, she missed an easy volley and the set went to a tiebreak, which Cibulkova dominated. There were multiple breaks throughout the third set, before the Slovak served out for her first WTA title, propelling her to her first year-end Top-20 finish.

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This was Cibulkova's first career title.

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Months between singles finals for Kanepi.

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Kanepi’s ranking at the time of the finals, making her the second lowest-ranked player to play for a WTA Premier title that year after Julia Goerges (the Stuttgart champion).

Each week, we’ll take a look back at a past final played at one of the current week’s tournaments.