No. 8 seed, Victoria Azarenka of Belarus easily triumphed over No. 16 seed, Maria Sharapova of Russia in a straight-sets victory, 6-1, 6-4, in the Final of the 2011 WTA Sony Ericsson Open in Miami on Saturday.
Azarenka came out with guns blazing, while Sharapova hardly got her guns out of the holster, with the resulting match not really what we would expect from a WTA Final. Azarenka broke serve the first eight times Sharapova served, taking a 6-1, 4-0 lead before Sharapova held serve for the first and only time. Sharapova then broke Azarenka’s serve twice to bring it up to 4-5, giving a little glimpse of hope. But Azarenka closed it out at 6-4.
Sharapova held serve only once during the match. Service troubles, most noticeably double faults, have been plaguing Sharapova for almost two years, ever since she altered her service motion to avoid right shoulder injury. It is difficult to win against a tough opponent when you commit 43 unforced errors and hold serve only once as Sharapova did today.
Azarenka is now 6-6 in WTA singles finals. She won her first three titles in 2009; in 2010 she defeated Sharapova in the Stanford final, and Maria Kirilenko in the Moscow final. Azarenka has a 15-5 singles match record in 2011.
Three-time grand slam tourney champion Sharapova is now 22-12 in WTA singles finals. Due to right shoulder rotator cuff tendon tears, she played only one match (a doubles match) between August, 2008, and May, 2009. In 2010, she incurred a right elbow bone bruise at Indian Wells in March, and that kept her sidelined until May. This year, respiratory illness caused her to withdraw from three tournaments in February. Despite the setbacks, Sharapova has a 14-5 match record this season, and is 9-2 in her last 11 matches, losing only to Azarenka and #1 Caroline Wozniacki.
