Myskina's confidence and timing ensures final showdown with experienced Rubin

There are two ways of viewing today's final of the Britannic Asset Management Championships between Anastasia Myskina and Chanda Rubin.

One is to say that a final involving the world's 19th and 37th ranked players is a sign of how far a once great tournament, the oldest all-women's tennis event in Europe, has fallen since the days when Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova and Steffi Graf regularly graced the stage here. The other is to see Myskina and Rubin as the best players of the week, one of whom fully deserves the title she will collect today and thereby become an outside bet for Wimbledon.

Fortunately for the tournament, the good burghers of Eastbourne have a record of appreciating whatever fare is laid before them, and many will thoroughly enjoy a final likely to be much closer than last year's brief encounter in which Lindsay Davenport conceded just two games against Magui Serna.

Expectations that this week was made for the 19-year-old Slovak Daniela Hantuchova to win her third title of the year evaporated in yesterday's semi-finals. She was humbled 6-2, 6-1 in just 52 minutes by Myskina, in a display of solid hitting which suggests the 13th-ranked Slovak still has a lot to learn about playing on grass.

Myskina, a statuesque 20-year-old, is playing the best tennis of her career. She took Venus Williams and Jennifer Capriati to three sets earlier this year, reached the final in Birmingham last week, and is clearly enjoying not only great confidence but superb timing on the smooth lawns of Devonshire Park.

Her consistency totally unnerved Hantuchova, who never got into the match. While Myskina hit the lines with impressive regularity, Hantuchova tried to serve and volley. At times it worked and then it was easy to see why great things are expected of her, but too often her volleys were not up to handling the ferocious Myskina returns, and on occasions she looked hopelessly out of position.

Hantuchova gave credit to Myskina, but admitted she did not get the basics of her own game right. There was a clear turning point where the match failed to turn. Serving at 1-4, 0-40 in the second set, Hantuchova pounded down three first serves to get back to deuce, but then made two soft errors to concede her serve for the fifth time.

Myskina, who will rise to a career-high ranking of about No 15 after this week, today faces Rubin, who recovered from a slow start to beat Daja Bedanova 6-4, 6-1. Rubin, who has a fond following in Eastbourne after being runner-up in 1995 and twice reaching the semi-finals, is finding great form following knee surgery, and her greater grasscourt experience should give her the edge.