LOS ANGELES -- Second-seeded Boris Becker overpowered unseeded Australian Mark Woodforde 6-2, 6-2 to win his 40th career singles title at the $313,750 Los Angeles Open.


Becker's second title of the year lifted the confidence of the German approaching the start of the U.S. Open later this month in New York.


"Every match I played better this week. Today was very easy," said Becker, the 1989 U.S. Open champion.


For Sunday's 55-minute triumph, Becker earned $42,000 while Woodforde collected $24,150 at the 32-player, hard-court tournament.


The 11th-ranked Becker controlled the 53rd-ranked Woodforde with his powerful serve, dropping just four points on serve in each set and tallying six aces and 12 service winners.


Woodforde is best known as half of the top-ranked doubles team in the world with compatriot Jason Stoltenberg, who also lost to Becker in the semifinals. The left-handed Woodforde struggled with his own first serve and was under constant pressure every time he missed a first delivery as Becker sought to get quickly on the offensive.


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Slump? What slump? Even though Steffi Graf had reached the final of the $400,000 Toshiba Tennis Classic in Carlsbad, California, her sub-par play had been the talk of the tournament. She had not been at the top of her game since winning the German Open in her homeland three months ago.


But that was before Graf took the court Sunday for the championship match against Arantxa Sanchez Vicario of Spain. This was a showdown between the world's top-ranked women players, and Graf turned it into a 6-2, 6-1 runaway for her 86th tour victory.


Graf needed just one hour, seven minutes to win the tournament for the fourth time, and the second time in a row. She also beat Sanchez Vicario in last year's final, 6-4, 4-6, 6-1.


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In Prague, Spain's Sergi Bruguera beat Andrei Medvedev of Ukraine 6-3, 6-4 Sunday, in the final game of the $365,000 Czech Open men's tennis tournament at the Stvanice clay-court stadium.


Medvedev, the more aggressive of the two, broke Bruguera in the third game and took a 3-1 lead early in the match.


But the first-seeded Spaniard broke back to 3-2 and thwarted Medvedev's attack with near-perfect baseline tennis, turning the set around to win 6-3.


With Medvedev up 1-0 and 30-15 in the second set, play was suspended for 15 minutes due to rain.


Bruguera then won the game thanks to Medvedev's three unforced errors on the forehand side.


(Reuters, LAT, AP)