Maria Sharapova claimed her second title of the year and the 18th of her career when she defeated unseeded Vera Zvonareva 6-1, 2-6, 6-0 in an all-Russian final at the Qatar Open in Doha on Sunday.
The Australian Open champion, who extended her unbeaten run this year to 14 matches, lost to Zvonareva in their last meeting at Indian Wells 11 months ago and after dominating the opening set once again found herself in trouble against her former top ten opponent.
"I had a really slow start," Sharapova told reporters. "I was kind of sleeping in the beginning of the match. I had to get myself going somehow and I did, and I played really, really well."
Playing in a packed 5,000-seat stadium, fourth seed Sharapova made a dreadful start, dropping the opening game to love.
But she repaired the situation immediately, levelling at 1-1 and then overwhelming her opponent with her deep groundstrokes and powerful forehand.
Moving with increasing fluency, her aggressive play forced a number of errors from Zvonareva and allowed her to break twice more for the set, and it appeared as if she would continue on to an easy victory.
But the second set saw a complete reversal.
STRUGGLING FAVOURITE
A double-fault gave Zvonareva a break for 2-0 after Sharapova had led the game 40-0, and her aggressive groundstrokes forced the struggling favourite into a succession of errors.
Making just three unforced errors, Zvonareva dominated the set and broke again to level the match on her fifth set point.
The pendulum swung again in the final set, as a determined Sharapova raised her level once more, taking control from the first game and surrendering just eight points in the remainder of the match.
"I had so many opportunities in the beginning of the second set but I didn't take them, and she's the type of opponent that's going to play her best tennis when she's playing from behind and has nothing to lose," said Sharapova.
"Her level just comes up, and mine dropped. I felt like my energy was going down. I wasn't moving or hitting the same way, and I think that first game of the third set was very important. It gave me a lot of confidence."
Zvonareva agreed the beginning of the final set played a crucial part in the outcome of the match.
"It was a tough one," said Zvonareva. "She started off really well and I didn't really know what to do. She was really aggressive and didn't give me a chance. Then I found my game a little bit better and caused her trouble in the second.
"I think the first game of the third set was an important game on my serve. I lost it and then she took a 3-0 lead and it was really tough to stop her after that."
Photograph: Jasper Juinen/Getty Images
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