The Pacific Life Open crowned a new champion on Sunday as top seed Ana Ivanovic captured the 2008 women’s singles title.
Ivanovic defeated second seed Svetlana Kuznetsova 6-4, 6-3 to win the Tier I tournament in Indian Wells, California.
Ivanovic posted only 21 unforced errors and twenty-nine errors along the way to her sixth career title.
“It’s a great victory for me,” said Ivanovic after the final. ‘We always have tough matches. I think we both played good tennis from first point on, and I was really happy with that. We both kept level for most of the match. When I managed to break her at 4-all in the first set it gave me confidence, and I went strong from that point on. I realized that’s what I had to do. I’m happy I managed to do that again later on.”
Kuznetsova reached the final at Indian Wells last year, where she lost in a similar 6-3, 6-4 fashion to 2002 champion Daniela Hantuchova.
“”In every final, there’s also another player who plays,” conceded Kuznetsova who lost earlier this year to Justine Henin in Sydney and Elena Dementieva at the Dubai Tennis Championships.
“I have had different and better chances. Justine and I played an amazing final and I had chances against Elena too. Today I didn’t have that many chances. It’s always painful to lose, but I prefer losing in the final to losing in the second round. I still played a pretty good tournament.”
Ivanovic was awarded the winner’s purse of $332,000 dollars. Kuznetsova received $163,000 dollars as the runner-up.
She deserved this after such a close match with Sharapova in Australia. Good Job Ivanovic!
[...] tennis season. She reached the final at the Australian Open and most recently won last week’s Pacific Life Open in straight sets over Svetlana [...]