Playing as the oldest No. 1 ranked woman in the open era, Serena Williams captured her 6th title at Miami with a three-set victory over No. 2 Maria Sharapova in the 2013 Sony Open.
Maria started out very aggressive and broke Serena in the fifth game to take a 3-2 lead in the first set. Serena hit several unforced errors, and Maria took advantage and held her serve to win the set 6-4.
Serena became more intense in the second set, breaking Maria in the 2nd game. Maria replied with a break the very next game and held serve to make it 2-2. She again broke Serena on love to take a big advantage. But the big-hitting Serena countered with a break on love. She broke again in the 8th game and held serve in the 9th to win the set 6-3.
Maria seemed to lose her confidence and Serena broke serve in three consecutive games to win the 3rd set and close out the match with a bagel, 6-0.
Serena now has the most Sony Open championships of any woman, one better than Steffi Graf.
After the match, “It feels really good,” Serena said, who also extended her record for victories at this event to 61. “At the start of the tournament, I definitely didn’t feel like I would be here, not with the way I was playing.” She added: “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.”
