The Hindu : Sport / Tennis : Sharapova wins first title of the year

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Aug 07, 2007
ePaper

Sport

Sport - Tennis

Sharapova wins first title of the year

TENNIS / Roddick brings Isner back to earth in Washington final

— Photo: Lisa Blumenfeld/Getty Images

THE WAIT ENDS: Maria Sharapova broke her drought of title wins by retaining the Acura Classic on Sunday.

SAN DIEGO: Top seed Maria Sharapova won her first title of the year by beating Patty Schnyder 6-2, 3-6, 6-0 in the San Diego Classic final on Sunday.

The Russian used a powerful baseline attack to break the left-handed Swiss six times amid a flurry of 37 winners, but she did not have things all her own way.

After Sharapova closed out the first set by ripping a backhand down the line, the 11th-seeded Schnyder cleverly began to move the tall Russian around the court.

She broke to 5-3 in the second set when Sharapova missed a forehand and levelled the match with a 110-mph service winner.

Tentativeness

Between sets, Sharapova’s coach Michael Joyce told her to stop being so tentative and she came out roaring in the third set, breaking Schnyder to 2-0 when the Swiss erred on a drop shot.

“In the first set I hit some really good shots when she was serving and that opened doors for me,” Sharapova told reporters.

“In the second set I lost that extra step and once you give her a little edge, she’s going to get a lot of balls back and she’s not going to waste her time. I hesitated for too many balls and I knew I had to step in and hit it again.”

Sharapova never looked back, breaking Schnyder to 4-0 with a blazing forehand and winning the match with another forehand winner.

“Once she’s on a roll, she sticks with it and doesn’t give a chance,” Schnyder said. “She puts pressure on you whenever she has break points and you have to save them.

“She’s a champion and you know you have to come up with something special.”

In the last year of the San Diego Classic, which has been sold to Beijing, Sharapova became the first woman to defend the title since Venus Williams in 2002.

Confidence booster

“I know what happened last year when I won here and then went on to win the U.S. Open, so this gives me a lot of confidence,” Sharapova said.

It was the World No. 2 Russian’s first title since winning the Linz tournament in October.

“It’s such a thin line,” Sharapova said. “I’d rather be in a Grand Slam final than win a Tier IV tournament. I could easily play 30 tournaments a year like some of the other girls if I really wanted to win a tournament, but that’s physically impossible for me.

“I play the big ones and the ones that count that I feel that I’m ready for. If I didn’t win one before this one, then so what, I’ve won plenty before.”

Fairytale ends

Meanwhile at Washington DC, top seed Andy Roddick ended the fairytale run of 416th-ranked John Isner by beating the tour rookie 6-4, 7-6(4) in the Washington Open on Sunday.

Roddick served a modest 12 aces in the 80-minute match but had the only service break between the two hard-hitting Americans.

Isner, 22, entered the final having been broken only four times in 86 service games this week but Roddick broke the 2007 NCAA finalist from the University of Georgia in the seventh game of the opening set to take a 4-3 lead.

Roddick served out the set knowing he still had work to do as the towering Isner had won each of his previous matches this week in three-set affairs.

In the second-set tiebreaker, Roddick achieved a mini-break to take a 3-1 lead and served out the match for a 7-4 triumph.

Controlling things

“I was happy with the way I could control things with my serve,”’ Roddick said. “I was putting pressure on him. I was making him serve well out of jams. I returned well. If I was putting a racket on it I was putting it on the court.”

“I couldn’t ask for a better way out than to compete against Andy for the championship,” Isner told reporters. “He’s a great champion.”

Isner, playing in just his second ATP tournament, gained entry into the Washington event as a wild card when Fernando Gonzalez withdrew with a sore back.

Among his upset victims in the tournament were No. 2 Tommy Haas, No. 8 Benjamin Becker, ninth-seeded Gael Monfils and Tim Henman.

The results: At San Diego (WTA Tour Acura Classic): Final: Maria Sharapova bt Patty Schnyder 6-2, 3-6, 6-0.