Sania Mirza/ Yaroslava Shvedova defeat Govortsova/ Kudryavtseva to win title – Citi Open 2011
At a dream ending of the Citi Open 2011, the top two seeds faced each other in the title round. Top seeds, Indian Sania Mirza and Kazakh Yaroslava Shvedova, outclassed the second seeds, Olga Govortsova and Alla Kudryavtseva, in
straight sets to clinch the title. They registered 6-3, 6-3 victory over their rivals to triumph in this first edition of the WTA International event taking place at the College Park, Maryland in Washington D.C., United States on Sunday.
The highest ranked team of the tournament, Mirza and Shvedova displayed extra-ordinary class to stomp over the Belarusian Russian tandem in straight sets in sixty-five minutes. Mirza shelved her twelfth doubles title and her third
this season whereas Shvedova won her fourth title.
Mirza and Shvedova confidently entered the hard courts at College Park and plucked in entire serves through their amazing co-ordination. They got the coveted break in the fourth game and were eventually 4-1 up. After this, the
pair held remaining serves to seal the opener with a 6-3 win.
The Indo Kazakh duo went berserk in the final set as they hammered exquisite forehands and backhands to reel off first three games in a row before their opponents broke back. The tandem lost their serves three times after saving
eight out of eleven breakpoints conceded. However, Mirza and Shvedova capitalised on five out of eight breakpoint opportunities to their advantage to clinch with a similar 6-3 score line again.
The winning combination of Indo Kazakh stars committed more double faults but produced a much better first serve share of 66 percent as compared to Govortsova and Kudryavtseva’s 52 percent. They also jolted a fabulous 70 percent
win on it and after cashing on half breakpoint opportunities in the match, they triumphed comfortably.
"It feels great to win my first tournament this year. I hope there will be lots more too!"the beaming Shvedova said. "Sania asked me to play this week because Elena took the week off. So did Vani, so neither of us had our usual
partners…We had fun playing together. It worked out well this week!"
Shvedova will be heading to Vancouver after this victory.
Mirza, on the other hand, will be going to San Diego as she tweeted after the match, “Won the tournament:) en-route to San diego..one of the prettiest places in the world,can't wait to see my aunt who lives there:)”
Her doubles partner Elena Vesnina is waiting for her at San Diego and Mirza is geared up with confidence for her next match.
Tags: