Zvonareva defeats Ivanovic to take singles title
Tennis newsVera Zvonareva was the steadier player on a wind-swept Sunday, defeating defending champion Ana Ivanovic of Serbia 7-6 (5), 6-2 in the final of the BNP Paribas Open.
The 24-year-old Russian won despite swirling gusts making the service toss difficult and even some routine shots extremely tricky.
Zvonareva added the title to the doubles championship she won the previous day with teammate Victoria Azarenka, whom she had beaten in the singles semifinals.
Zvonareva joined Lindsay Davenport as the only women to win the singles and doubles title at Indian Wells in the same year. Davenport did it twice, in 1997 and 2000.
In the singles final this time, the wind swirled around the stadium, with both players often tossing the ball to serve only to have to catch it and try again. Serving on the first point of the tiebreaker, Ivanovic tossed the ball up, it went sailing about a meter (yard) behind her, bounced on the court and kept bouncing away, swept off the court by the wind.
Ivanovic finally served and won the point, but a string of errors cost her the rest of the tiebreaker and plagued her in the second set.
Zvonareva, who won her ninth career singles title and second of the year, handled the conditions better. She made 23 unforced errors, half of Ivanovics total. Ivanovic also had five double-faults. Zvonareva had one.
Those mistakes negated Ivanovics winners – she hit 29 to Zvonarevas five.
The victory evened Zvonarevas record against Ivanovic to 4-4.
Ivanovic, the defending French Open champion who had two stints at No. 1 last year, was trying to become only the second woman to repeat as Indian Wells champion. Martina Navratilova won the desert event in 1990-91.
Monday, March 23rd, 2009 at 9:15 pm and is filed under Tennis news. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
