Sharapova’s win streak continues in Qatar

DOHA—Maria Sharapova maintained her unbeaten record in 2008 by claiming her second title of the year with a win over fellow Russian Vera Zvonareva at the Qatar Open on Sunday.
The Australian Open champion won 6-1, 2-6, 6-0 against her unseeded but impressive opponent, producing a ferocious final set performance which once again underlined her as the player to beat right now. She had a decent test from the world number 27, who is coming back well herself from wrist and ankle injuries, and at times showed some of the rhythm, deception and fluency which once carried her into the world’s top ten.
Sharapova’s improvement since last year has come not only from overcoming her shoulder problems but careful attention to injury-avoiding detail, as the manner in which she worked her way carefully into this match suggested. “I made a slow start and then played really well to win the first set,” she explained. “But she’s the type of opponent who’s going to play her best tennis when she’s behind when she has nothing to lose. That’s happened to me with her before.
“I felt my energy going down in the third set and I needed something to get me going. “And there were a couple of rallies at the start of it when I scrambled to win them, which gave me a lot of confidence. I felt like things were changing after that. “What I have to do is to play the right way and stay on top - not to have any let-downs. I am better able to do that now because I am physically strong, and don’t have a problem with long matches.” Sharapova nevertheless started as though her old ailment, the right shoulder were giving her trouble again. She served at a modest pace, made three unforced errors in the first five rallies and delivered a double fault.
This cost her the opening service game, but at this stage Zvonareva was not at her best either, and Sharapova was soon making headway. Two breaks of serve gave her a cushion to risk heavier and more ambitious attacks, which heaped more pressure on the unseeded player. That contributed to two double faults and another break of serve by Zvonareva in the sixth game, but once she had lost the first set she began to play better.—Agencies