|
 Sharapova beat the talented Ukrainian Elina Svitolina 6-1 6-3 to
reach the final without dropping a set while Ivanovic battled her
way to a 7-6(2) 6-4 victory over American Varvara Lepchenko.
Sharapova beat Ivanovic in the 2008 Australian Open final and both
women are in devastating form heading towards the first grand slam
of the season, starting in Melbourne on Jan. 19.
Sharapova has dropped just nine games in her three matches to get to
the final and showed no mercy against Svitolina, a rising star who
won the 2010 junior French Open, as she reached her 56th WTA final.
"I expected her to play well. I think I did a lot of things good to
try to take away her game," Sharapova said.
"In the end, it became a little bit more difficult. She became more
free, went for her shots a little bit, a few unforced errors from my
end, but overall I'm happy I stuck with it and finished the last
point."
 Ivanovic, who came from a set down to win her previous match, once
again had to dig deep before seeing off Lepchenko after nearly two
hours on the Pat Rafter Arena.
Lepchenko twice served for the opening set but Ivanovic broke back
both times then won the tiebreaker.
In the second set, Ivanovic charged to a 5-1 lead before she got the
wobbles, allowing Lepchenko to reel off the next three games before
she finally sealed the win on her seventh match point.
"Definitely, (my) heart was racing a little bit, especially that it
was really becoming a battle," Ivanovic said.
"Even though I was 5-1 up, still felt like a battle all the way
through."
[to top of second column] |
Ivanovic will be chasing her 16th WTA career title and her fifth in
12 months after she began her latest resurgence up the world
rankings.
Currently ranked seventh, the 27-year-old is looming as one of the
favourites for the Australian Open.
A former world number one who won her only grand slam title at the
2008 French Open, Ivanovic credits her return to form to finally
learning how to cope with fame.
"I struggled to be in the spotlight. For me, this is something that
took time to get used to because I was very shy," she said.
"It was really overwhelming for me and all the pressures. I always
play tennis as a game and not all these pressures and expectations.
"I felt like I had no time to go to movies with friends, you know,
and this is what every person needs. So I really feel since maybe
year and a half I found this balance."
(Reporting by Julian Linden; Editing by John O'Brien and Pritha
Sarkar)
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