In a battle of two Elena's, in the 17th all Russian WTA final since 2003, Dementieva taught a lesson to her young compatriot to claim the victory.

In a match up between two players who were playing in their first and 25th final of their careers, experience finally prevailed and the Olympic Gold Medallist Elena Dementieva claimed the first tournament of 2009 by defeating another Elena, Elena Vesnina 6-4, 6-1. The first set saw an exchange of breaks between both the players , with Vesnina taking an early lead of 3-1, but Dementieva broke back and took the  set 6-4 and totally humbled Vesnina in the second set to clinch the victory in just 88 minutes.

"The crowd's support was awesome, not just today but all week," an elated Dementieva said. "It was a pleasure to come here and play this tournament. We all really felt at home here, it was very nice. And for the first time my mom isn't here with me, so I'm especially happy to take this trophy back home for her."

Vesnina too will have her fair share of good memories going ahead, with this being her first WTA final. She knocked out the second seed Caroline Wozniacki in the quarterfinals and British prodigy Anne Keovathong in semifinals to take a headstart going into the first slam of the year in Melbourne.

"It was a great week for me," Vesnina said to the crowd afterwards. "I'm really happy my first final happened here in Auckland. It's a very nice place to be - from the first match, I really fell in love with this city. I'd like to congratulate Elena for her great week - she played really well and deserved this title."

The doubles final of the tournament lived upto all the expectations when the title was decided by a match tie break. After a three set tussle the French-Italian pair of Nathalie Dechy and Mara Santangelo defeated Spanish team of Nuria Llagostera Vives and Arantxa Parra Santonja 4-6, 7-6(3), 12-10.

This is Dechy's fifth career title whereas Santangelo is enjoying her seventh career doubles title.