Second seed Amelie Mauresmo survived a match point before finally securing her first Rome Masters title on Sunday, when she beat former world number one Jennifer Capriati 3-6, 6-3, 7-6.
Three times a runner-up in the past four years in the Italian capital, the Frenchwoman's second consecutive tournament win after her triumph in last week's Berlin event sent out a warning to her rivals ahead of the French Open later this month.
It also proved she is back to full fitness after withdrawing from the Australian Open and Indian Wells tournament with a back injury earlier this year.
"It was fourth time lucky," said a delighted Mauresmo, who was the first Frenchwoman to win the tournament since Mary Pierce in 1997.
"It was a very difficult match. I had the sense that the match changed at the beginning of the second set when I came out more aggressively, but it could have gone either way.
"This is my second success in a row. Next week I'm going to continue to train and hope everything goes well at Roland Garros."
TIGHT SET
Mauresmo had crushed Capriati 6-2, 6-0 in the semi-finals in Berlin, but any hopes she might have had of cruising to another easy win were quickly dispelled in a tight first set.
Capriati came out in determined mood, matching Mauresmo's powerful ground strokes, and seized control in the eighth game, conjuring up a running crosscourt pass to break before serving out the set.
In the second set, Mauresmo took advantage of a lucky net-cord and a pair of unforced errors to break Capriati in the second game, but then double-faulted with the American on break point in the next to surrender her lead.
More routine mistakes by Capriati, however, gave Mauresmo another break in the fourth game and this time the second seed held serve comfortably to take the match into a decider.
Both players had chances to break in a tight third set, with Mauresmo holding off a match point in the 11th game.
In the tiebreak, the American whipped a cross-court winner past her opponent to save a match point at 5-6 down but a netted forehand on the next point gave Mauresmo a second chance to win the match, which she did when Capriati pushed a backhand wide.
