Vera Zvonareva beats Caroline Wozniacki to lift Qatar Open
Russian Vera Zvonareva stunned top seed Caroline Wozniacki in straight sets to win the Qatar Ladies Open 2011 on Saturday. The $721,000 tournament was held after a two-year break at the Khalifa Tennis and squash International stadium.
World number three Zvonareva produced a brilliant display of tennis for the 11th WTA title of her career. The Russian appeared to be too strong for Wozniacki to overcome. She was well prepared for the contest as her defence was rock solid and her serve was
on target. In the end a great all-round effort earned the Russian her first title of the season.
Zvonareva, who was also the runner-up to Maria Sharapova in the 2008 Qatar Open, opened the first set with a serve break. She then rallied from 0-40 down in the eighth game and eventually served out the set 6-4.
The second set followed a more competitive pattern. Wozniacki came back into the match by breaking Zvonareva in the second game. However, the Russian instantly broke back in the next game to keep the psychological advantage. In the seventh game Zvonareva
made a crucical break with a forehand winner down the line after eight deuces. The world number three then held onto the lead to complete a well deserved 6-4, 6-4 win. Wozniacki hit a wild backhand to end proceedings, dropping her record to 13-7 in WTA finals.
Speaking to journalists after the win, Zvonareva said, “This is definitely a special moment for me, especially after that tough match against Daniela (Hantuchova) and another great one against Jelena (Jankovic). I have so many fans here it's unbelievable,
it’s because of them I was able to come through this week."
The world number three also added, "Coming into this tournament I wasn''t expecting to end my week like this. It's great. Congratulations to Caroline, though. She's a great player and a great fighter. I'm sure we'll have a lot of good matches. This has been
an unbelievable event."
Vera Zvonareva has now become the fourth Russian to win the Qatar Open title after Anastasia Myskina, Nadia Petrova and Maria Sharapova. The 26-year-old had crushed Wozniacki in semi-finals of the US Open last year but refused to draw comparisons with any
other matches. She has now won four out of eight meetings with the Dane.
On the other hand Wozniacki, who had absolutely dominated the Tour for the last two weeks, was completely baffled by her opponent’s punishing ground strokes and powerful serves. Wozniacki admitted that her opponent played a very good match and that although
she had quite a few break points she was unable to convert them.
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