It’s Serena no.6 here in Miami. The world no.1 proved to be too strong once again for Sharapova to bring their head to head record to a telling 12-2.
Maria was as determined as ever to win this match as this was her 5th final in Miami and she hasn’t been able to win a title yet. The Russian beauty started really well to win the opener 6-4. Then it was time for Serena to grab a 2-0 lead in the second set. Maria tried to recove to break back Serena, but then she lost her service when she was 3-4 down…then.. game over: Serena won the second set to serve a bagel in the third.
Some stats
Once again Maria’s biggest problem came from her second serve. She committed 5 double faults on 12 service games (no aces!!!) to win only 6 points out of 25 on her second serve. Maria also conceded 7 break points without being able to save even one of those (Serena saved 5 break points out of 9).
From Serena
“It feels really good,” said Williams,“At the start of the tournament, I definitely didn’t feel like I would be here, not with the way I was playing.”
“I finally have some record. It’s really cool. I can’t seem to catch up with Margaret Court or Steffi, so I’m really happy to have something going right now.”
From Maria
“I think today I certainly played a lot better,” said Sharapova.
“I had my chances. There’s no reason why I couldn’t win the match today. I was playing well, not well enough to win the match, obviously, but it was a step in the right direction, and there’s no doubt that we’ll be playing many more times. There’s no doubt I’ll be able to beat her.”