Maria Sharapova “I was just making errors” – Tennis News
World number two, Maria Sharapova, couldn’t handle the onslaught of her arch rival, Victoria Azarenka, in the grand finale of the China Open on Sunday. She failed to grab the control of her game and sprayed the ball all around; making life easier for the top seeded Belarusian who capitalized on the barrage on unforced errors from Sharapova very nicely.
It was not a contest at all by any means. Azarenka too four games lead in the opening set and made it five in the second phase that clearly shows the lack of command from the Russian blonde who had dropped just 20 games throughout the tournament. A one-sided battering witnessed Azarenka clobbering her opponent and winning the seventh head-to-head tie to take her lead to 7-4 against Sharapova.
The 25-year-old Russian was very complimentary towards her rival at the end of the encounter. She commented, “Victoria played a really good match - she just did many things much better than I did. I felt like when I had the chance, in situations where I had opportunities to get back in the set or in the match, I was just making errors.”
However, the form at which the Russian started the tournament at Beijing wasn’t one of the greatest. Commenting about that, she said, “But I came here not having played at a high level in Tokyo, and with every match I was playing better here - it's unfortunate to lose in the final, but after the results I've had here in the past, this was definitely a step in the right direction.”
Sharapova is not participating in any tournament before the start of the season-end finale that will take place in Istanbul from Oct 23 – 28. It will be a fascinating event to witness especially considering the fact that the 42 year history has been broken this time around. Every player in the Top-8 elite category is from the different country and that has never happened for over four decades in the season-end finale for the Women Tennis Association Championships.
On the other hand, the23-year-old Azarenka seeks more practice before the final tour of the season begins in Istanbul, hence, taking part in the Generali Ladies Linz in Austria as the top seed contestant. She will be playing her first round match against the Dutch professional, Arantxa Rus, on Monday. It might be a dangerous option to chose because the probability of incurring an injury can increase but the Belarusian is firm to play as many matches as she can to prepare for the big contest.
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