We have a new champion and a new world Nr.1: Victoria Azarenka.
It was a strange final. Sharapova took advantage of her opponent tense nerves to get an early lead (2-0). At that time, it was clear that it was a one way final. That was true, but on the opposite direction. In fact, Azarenza started to feel more relaxed and with a display of an amazing tennis she had a huge ‘stint’ of 12-1 games, enough to make her the new champion.
Sharapova was simply outplayed. She may have to rethink about her overall match. It seems she failed to do 2 major things. Firstly she did not take advantage of her superior grand slam experience. Secondly, she failed to devise a different strategy when it was clear that today she couldn’t compete with Azarenka simply by trading tough shots (these ladies need to learn how to mix up some tennis.. learn from Schiavone).
`Right after the win I couldn’t understand what’s happening, you know, and I could not believe the tournament is over because it’s been so long, this road since Sydney,” Azarenka said. `I didn’t have one day off, so it kind of kept going kept going and right now it still hasn’t hit me that it’s over and I won this.”
`She did everything better than I did today. I had a good first couple of games, and that was about it. Then she was the one that was taking the first ball and hitting it deep and aggressive. I was always the one running around like a rabbit, trying to play catch-up all the time,” Sharapova said. “She was a step quicker. First shot was bigger. Just not a good combination, I guess.”
So, that was it. This final created a new worthy champion and a new nr.1.
Time to think and fight back for Sharapova…
