Vera Zvonareva sinks Caroline Wozniacki to clinch Qatar Ladies Open 2011 title
World number three Vera Zvonareva stunned top ranked Caroline Wozniacki in the final of the Qatar Ladies Open 2011 in straight sets on Saturday.
The 26-year-old Russian took one hour and forty-nine minutes to overcome the world number one Wozniacki 6-4, 6-4. This is Zvonareva’s 11th career singles Women Tennis Association title.
Wozniacki was in sublime form before the match. She regained the top spot in the women’s ranking recently when she convincingly won the WTA title in Dubai. Her voyage en route to the final of the Qatar Ladies Open was also inspiring but she somehow lost
her steam in the title battle in Qatar.
On the other hand, Zvonareva proved her mental strength under pressure and outclassed her opponent with her brilliant ground strokes.
“I was just going for my shots. Caroline is a great player,” Zvonareva reflected in her post match press conference. “So I was just fighting for every point.”
Zvonareva strained hard at the start of the opening set to put the Dane under pressure. Her agility was worth watching as she traced down the occasional drop shots from her opponent with ease.
Although Zvonareva won the contest, she squandered many opportunities en route to victory. The 26-year-old had ten serve break chances but she managed to convert only four of those in the whole match.
A loss of serve in the very first game of the opener took the momentum away from the Dane. She merely converted 3 out of 25 second serve points and failed to save the two serve break points she faced in the set. Wozniacki’s error count was reasonable but
she kept losing points on crucial moments of the game.
Zvonareva rallied from a 0-40 deficit in the eighth game and then served out comprehensively to take the first set 6-4.
Wozniacki lifted her first serve percentage to an impressive 78 but was not able to convert her serve points on most occasions. Her baseline defence improved in the second set as she denied six break opportunities to Zvonareva.
An exchange of serve breaks was seen from both contestants in the second and third games of the set. Zvonareva took the decisive serve break in the seventh game after facing eight deuces. An errant shot from Wozniacki ended wide of the sideline, giving the
Russian the Championship.
Zvonareva has improved her head-to-head record against Wozniacki to 4-4 with her win in Qatar.
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