Maria Sharapova yesterday won her first WTA title in more than two years at the Tianjin Open, showing plenty of grit and determination as she came from behind in each set to beat Belarusian teenager Aryna Sabalenka 7-5, 7-6 (10/8).
The former world No. 1, who returned to the tour in April following a 15-month doping ban, started the stronger, breaking Sabalenka in her opening service game, but struggled on serve and soon found herself trailing 4-1 in the first set.
The Russian managed to hold serve for the first time in the match at 4-2 and clung on grimly in the face of some hard hitting by her 19-year-old opponent before converting her fourth break point of the next game to get back on serve at 4-3.
Photo: AFP
Her nerves settled, Sharapova began to hit her stride, breaking Sabalenka again to go 6-5 up before closing out the set.
The Belarusian, playing her first WTA final, came back in the second set, opening up a 5-1 lead before serving to send the match into a decider, but Sharapova once again fought back to erase the deficit.
The 30-year-old broke Sabalenka twice in succession and held her nerve when facing a set point on serve at 5-4 to level things up, and broke the Belarusian to give herself the chance to serve out the match at 6-5.
However, there was more drama to come. The Russian, who sent down seven aces during the contest, double-faulted when facing a break point to gift Sabalenka the game and send the set into a tiebreak.
Sharapova, whose last title came at the Italian Open in May 2015, had three match points, but Sabalenka survived them all before double faulting with the score at 8-8 to hand Sharapova another opportunity.
This time, the Russian made no mistake, firing down a powerful serve to seal the victory.
SHANGHAI MASTERS
Reuters
Roger Federer yesterday brushed aside world No. 1 Rafael Nadal 6-4, 6-3 to win the Shanghai Masters and register his fourth victory of the year over his Spanish rival.
The Swiss world No. 2 beat Nadal in the finals of the Australian Open and Miami Masters and in the last 16 at Indian Wells earlier this year, and never looked like losing to his long-time rival in Shanghai, firing 10 aces as he cruised to victory.
Federer, the only man who can still stop Nadal ending the year as No. 1, took an hour and 12 minutes to claim his sixth title of the year and his second Shanghai crown with a clinical performance.
“I wasn’t here last year because of injuries, so it’s just so, so nice to be back in Shanghai,” Federer said. “It’s a wonderful moment for me to be back here playing against my good friend and rival, Rafa.”
Playing under a closed roof at the Qi Zhong Tennis Center, Federer sprinted out of the blocks, breaking Nadal in the opening game. The Spaniard had little answer to the sheer variety of shots coming across the net.
The Swiss refused to take his foot off the pedal in the second set, breaking Nadal to go up 3-2 and keeping his cool to wrap up victory.
He sealed the win on his opponent’s serve, winning the second of three match points to claim his 94th career title.
“I want to congratulate Roger and his team for a great year. Today I think you played a fantastic match, so many congratulations,” Nadal said.
“This year has probably been the most successful of my career here in China... It’s been a great two weeks and I feel very happy after a long year to be able to have the results here. It’s very important for me,” he added.
HONG KONG OPEN
AFP, HONG KONG
A typhoon cast a cloud over yesterday’s Hong Kong Open, as the Taiwanese duo Chan Hao-ching and Chan Yung-jan will have to wait to face Chinese pair Lu Jiajing and Wang Qiang in the finals.
The Hong Kong Observatory raised a T8 typhoon warning at 8:40am, bringing much of the territory’s infrastructure to a standstill.
Organizers released a statement saying that if the typhoon signal was lifted before 8pm, then every effort would be made to play the singles final between Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova and Daria Gavrilova.
The WTA will be desperate to complete the tournament on time, as both singles finalists were due to take a 10-hour flight late yesterday to Moscow, where they are seeded to play first-round matches in the Kremlin Cup tomorrow.
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