For 90 minutes Svetlana Kuznetsova kept Maria Sharapova on the run, dashing from corner to corner in vain pursuit of a championship.
As a weary Sharapova found herself on the verge of defeat, she went scrambling yet again after a shot and exclaimed, "Ai-yi-yi."
The crowd laughed, and Kuznetsova won the exchange to reach match point. The former US Open champion then finished with an ace for her first tournament title in 18 months, beating Sharapova 6-4, 6-3 Saturday at the Nasdaq-100 Open.
PHOTO: AFP
"I was not expecting this, but I was doing my best," Kuznetsova said. "I wanted this trophy badly."
Seeded 12th, she won the all-Russian final thanks to a superior serve and forehand, repeatedly driving Sharapova into one corner and then hitting a winner into the other.
The No. 4-seeded Sharapova finished as runner-up at Key Biscayne for the second year in a row. She said she was "a little tired" after winning 11 consecutive matches this month, including the final at Indian Wells.
"Physically it was very difficult to keep up with Svetlana today," Sharapova said. "I just wasn't physically ready to run down a lot of balls." And what about the exclamation, "Ai-yi-yi?"
"At that point in the match," Sharapova said, "maybe if you laugh, something will happen."
Fans will have another underdog to cheer for today: No. 6-seeded Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia, playing his first final in the US at age 27. He'll face top-seeded Roger Federer, the defending champion.
Kuznetsova received US$533,350 for her first WTA Tour Tier I title. She'll climb from 14th to 10th in next week's WTA Tour rankings, with Venus Williams slipping one spot to 11th.
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