Tianjin (China): Maria Sharapova won her first WTA title in more than two years at the Tianjin Open tennis tournament here Sunday, showing plenty of grit and determination as she came from behind in each set to beat Belarusian teenager Aryna Sabalenka 7-5, 7-6(10-8).
In both the sets, Sharapova was lagging behind – 2-4 in the first and 1-5 in the second. However, she refused to give up and matched Sabalenka stroke for strong from the back courts to finally construe a win. It was her first title after returning in April to competitive tennis after a 15-month doping ban.
“This title naturally means a lot to me,” the 31-year-old said in a courtside interview. “It has been a long wait with what happened off the court. But it has been worth the wait.”
Sharapova broke Sabalenka in her opening service game, but struggled on serve and soon found herself trailing 1-4. But she regrouped, broke Sabalenka three times to go up 6-5 and then closed out the first set easily.
The Belarusian, playing her first WTA final, came back in the second set, opening up a 5-1 lead before serving to send the match into a decider, but Sharapova once again fought back to erase the deficit.
The 31-year-old broke Sabalenka twice in succession and held her nerve when facing a set point on serve at 5-4 to level things up, and broke the Belarusian to give herself the chance to serve out the match at 6-5. But then she double faulted in the 12th game to take the set to a tie-breaker. In the tie-breaker she finally sealed the match in her favour on her fourth match point.
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