Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova overpowered Mashona Washington of the US yesterday to claim back-to-back Japan Open titles.
Top seeded Sharapova cruised to a 6-0, 6-1 victory over Washington in a match that lasted just 55 minutes at Ariake Colosseum.
Sharapova, No. 8 in the world rankings, used her booming serve and solid groundstrokes to dominate the unseeded American.
"I served very well," said Sharapova. "I knew I had to dictate the pace this time and was able to do that a lot better than the last time we played."
The previous time the two players met, Washington defeated Sharapova, 6-3, 2-6, 6-2 in the second round of August's Pilot Pen tournament at New Haven.
Sharapova, who broke through at the Japan Open last year to win her career first WTA singles title, is tremendously popular in Japan. A capacity crowd showed up at Ariake despite heavy rain from an approaching typhoon.
Play was then suspended at the tournament as a powerful typhoon hit Japan.
Typhoon Ma-on, packing winds of 162kph, forced suspension of the men's semifinal match between Lleyton Hewitt and Jiri Novak. Novak was leading 6-4, 4-6, 3-1 when play was suspended.
Tournament organizers stopped play when rain from the typhoon started leaking through Ariake Colosseum's retractable roof and onto the court.
Fans inside had to open umbrellas as a steady flow of rain leaked through the roof.
Ma-on is the most powerful typhoon to hit the region in 10 years. Meteorological Agency officials forecast about 250mm of rainfall through today along the eastern seaboard of Japan's main island of Honshu.
Lyon Open
Robin Soderling upset fourth-seeded Joachim Johansson 6-3, 6-4 in in the quarterfinals. Soderling, who previously ousted fifth-seeded Tommy Robredo of Spain, reached his fourth semifinals of the year.
Xavier Malisse of Belgium downed Mikhail Youzhny of Russia 6-3, 6-4, reversing their result from the Olympics, and David Ferrer of Spain topped Jonas Bjorkman of Sweden 6-2, 6-4. Bjorkman has not passed the quarterfinals in six appearances in Lyon.
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