Russia's Anna Kournikova was hoping to make her homeland tournament the site of her first career singles title today but was dispatched by doubles partner and world No. 1 Martina Hingis in the final of the $2.08 million Kremlin Cup tennis event.

Kournikova, seeded fourth, was blitzed, 6-3, 6-1 by Hingis in 47 minutes to keep the Moscow native without a tournament victory in five years on the WTA Tour.

"I have to work harder on trying to play more consistently," said Kournikova, who was competing in her 78th main draw singles tournament. "Martina's very good at that. She's a very experienced player and she's very tough to play against mentally."

Yevgeny Kafelnikov, the reigning Olympic gold medalist, did give the Russian people something to celebrate today, winning his fourth straight title here with a 6-2, 7-5 victory over unseeded David Prinosil of Germany.

Hingis won her third straight singles title in four weeks, her best run since 1997 when she began the season with six consecutive tournament victories. She earned $166,000 while completing a career sweep of all nine WTA Tour Tier I events.

"I was very happy with my week in Moscow," said Hingis, who picked up titles at Filderstadt and Zurich earlier this month. "I had never played here before so I was asking all the players what it was like. I was very impressed with the facilities here and it was nice to do some sightseeing on Friday. Tennis-wise I started the week well and finished very well."

With wins at Wimbledon, the Australian and U.S. Opens, and the season-ending Chase Championships on her resume, Hingis is missing only the French Open championship from her collection of major and top tournament titles.

The 19-year-old Kournikova is one of the most highly publicized players in women's tennis due to her looks, which has led to several endorsement deals. But that has not translated into success on the court in singles for Kournikova, whose only other finals appearances came at Miami in 1998 and Hilton Head last year.

However, she will move up one place in the tour singles rankings to No. 10 when the new list is released on Sunday.

"I am glad I got to the final and I am satisfied with my play here in Moscow," said Kournikova, who ousted defending champion and second seed Nathalie Tauziat in Saturday's semifinals. "I played well yesterday, but today Martina played better. The first set was crucial. I had so many game points to win every game, yet I still lost it 6-3. I think at the start of the second set I got down on myself and it was difficult to recover after that. Martina's confidence increased at that point."

Kournikova has had success in doubles, winning 10 career titles and finishing 1999 as the top-ranked doubles player in the world. She will have a chance to capture her fifth doubles title this year and third straight with Hingis in the women's doubles final.

Hingis is trying to sweep the singles and doubles title at three straight tournaments for the first time since Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario in 1994.

Since losing in the semifinals of the U.S. Open to Venus Williams, Hingis has won 14 straight singles matches. The 20-year-old from Switzerland claimed her tour-high eighth singles title of the year and 34th of her career today.

Hingis improved to 9-1 lifetime against Kournikova, taking advantage of 36 unforced errors and converting 6-of-6 break-point chances.

"Today's match against Anna was tough for me mentally as we are friends off the court, and she knows how to play me," she said. "But I think by the second set, I was really on top of her and I could tell that she got down on her self at that point."

With Prime Minister Mikhail Kasyanov in attendance, Kafelnikov broke Prinosil twice to win the first set in 28 minutes. The second set proved tougher as the Sochi native fell behind 0-2. Kafelnikov roared back to win four straight games but Prinosil eventually leveled the set at 4-4.

The players remained on serve until the Russian broke serve in the 11th game to close out the match in 76 minutes, improving to 31-5 lifetime over nine years at this event.

"I didn't have the slightest doubt about my victory going into the match," said Kafelnikov, who suffered defeat to Prinosil in Halle earlier this year. "I lost to him the last time we played but here in Moscow I knew it would be different. Believe me, a psychological factor means a lot. I wasn't over-confident, just confident in my abilities today."

The 26-year-old Kafelnikov won his 22nd career singles title and his second this year. He defeated Prinosil for the fifth time in six meetings, earned $137,000, and praised his countrymen for supporting the tournament.

"It's you who made this tournament, not me" Kafelnikov said. "I would like to thank you all for it."