Hingis captured her WTA Tour-leading third title in five events this year as she defeated the third-seeded Tauziat, 6-4, 6-4.

It was the second straight week that Hingis defeated a Frenchwoman in a Middle Eastern final after beating Sandrine Testud on Sunday at the Qatar Open, which marked the first WTA Tour final staged in the Middle East.

Hingis improved her season record to 25-2 as she claimed her 38th career singles title and the $80,000 first prize.

"I am very happy with my two weeks here in the Middle East," Hingis said. "I played better in today's match, compared to the others during the week."

Hingis' only losses this season were to Jennifer Capriati in the Australian Open final and to world No. 2 Lindsay Davenport one week later at the Pan Pacific Open final in Tokyo. The 20-year-old from Switzerland took the title at Sydney, Australia last month before winning at Qatar last week.

On Monday, Hingis will pass Monica Seles on the all-time list for total number of weeks at No. 1. Hingis will begin her 179th week at the top spot when the new WTA Tour rankings are released Monday.

"I knew I was pretty close to Monica's record but I had no idea it would happen next Monday," Hingis said. "For me No. 1 means consistency in all the tournaments across the whole year and being better than everyone else out there."

Appearing in her first final of the year, Tauziat fell short of winning her eighth career singles title and continued to have problems against Hingis, dropping to 0-6 lifetime against the world No. 1.

"It was a good week for me but today I felt a little tired out there," Tauziat said. "I tried to play shorter points and made some mistakes, especially on the return. She was more consistent than I was and played the important points better."

The 33-year-old Tauziat played in just her third event of the year after deciding to skip the Australian hardcourt season. She began 2001 by reaching the semifinals at the Open Gaz de France before losing in the second round at Nice in her homeland last week.