Maria Sharapova Dazzles at WTA Tennis Championships, Defeats Kim Clijsters
Posted by Aaress Lawless on Nov 8, 2006 | Print | Email | Bookmark | Free Subscription
Maria Sharapova’s run for the title at the Sony Ericsson Championships and the world number one ranking continued today with an impressive 6-4, 6-4 victory over Kim Clijsters.
Sharapova broke Clijsters for the early lead at 2-all in the first set and raced to a set point at 5-3 on Clijsters’ serve. Kim erased the point with an ace, which had originally been called out, but was successfully overturned using the instant replay challenge system. Not daunted by being forced to play another game, Maria held Kim at love to take the opening set 6-4.
The second set gave Maria a chance to serve out the match at 5-2, but Clijsters refused to give up so easily. After losing her serve and the next game, Sharapova finally closed out the match on her first match point with an ace to win 6-4, 6-4.
Maria was not the only one made to work hard today at Madrid, as Hawk-Eye certainly received a workout in the match, especially in the second set. Kim Clijsters was successful in four out of five challenges during the match, and Maria - who has joked about needing glasses based on her past experiences with the system - was correct in two of her three challenges. She even stopped the play at one point during a game to challenge a linesman’s call, which was overturned.
Even though the scoreboard showed that Maria Sharapova won a straight sets victory, the score barely reflects the quality of the tennis. Whatever effects Clijsters may have had lingering from her wrist injury were not evident and I’m looking forward to watching her take on Svetlana Kuznetsova tomorrow.
Overall, Clijsters played great, especially considering how little tennis she has played in the past several months, but Maria Sharapova dominated the match from the start. Any sluggishness she had against Dementieva yesterday was gone and she came out today with her A-game on court.
Still to Come Today:
Nadia Petrova vs. Martina Hingis
You can read On the Baseline’s preview of day two here.
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