She weaves a web, does 23-year-old Agnieszka Radwanska from Poland. It’s a web of deception that may not be too apparent through a television screen, but it entangled and eventually strangled the game out of Maria Sharapova 7-5, 6-4 in the Sony Ericsson Open final on Saturday.
This was the fourth time Sharapova, a three-time Grand Slam champion, has reached the final at Key Biscayne and she has yet to land the title. This defeat will only add to her frustration. Against players such as Caroline Wozniacki and Li Na in the previous rounds, the tall Russian blasted her way to victory on the back of power-packed groundstrokes. But on Saturday, Radwanska never allowed Sharapova to get into a rhythm.
With a bewitching variety of spins and changes of pace, Radwanska had Sharapova hitting a split second too early or a split second too late. That is fatal for someone trying to drive through the ball with a full swing. As a result, Sharapova made 45 errors, errors that are still euphemistically called unforced. And the 31 winners hit by the Russian never were going to redress the balance, even though, amazingly Radwanska made only six herself. In fact Aga, which is the Polish diminutive for her first name, won the first set with just one solitary winner.
But that is her game. To back it up, she needs to serve well and this she did.
“From the beginning, I was focusing on my serve,” Radwanska said. “I think I did a good job with that today. The serve was the key.”
Sharapova, who has lost in three finals this year, did not mince words about her own performance.
“She played extremely well today and was very consistent,” Sharapova said. “She got the extra ball back, and I made the extra mistake. When I had my chances on break point, I didn’t take them. When she had them, she did. I didn’t return well. I had second-serve opportunities with her serving at 70 (mph) and I’m not winning those points? There’s something wrong with that.”
It was a tough, but just critique. Sharapova had a break point in the fifth game of the first set and put a forehand wide. She had another at 3-3 and hit her forehand service return long. In the second set, there was another chance in the seventh game and, after a rally, but she hit long off her forehand.
By then, the struggle for rhythm had eaten away at her confidence and, finally, she produced her first double fault of the match. But her serve was not her problem on this occasion. She served well. She just couldn’t keep the ball in play on big points, and that is death against someone as consistent as Radwanska.
This was the biggest win of Radwanska’s career and, delighted, she rushed over to hug her sister Urszula who is her doubles partner at times on the WTA Tour. Their father, who had been watching all week, became too nervous at the thought of sitting through the final and flew home to Poland. He will have had a happy landing. Aga, already ranked No. 4 in the world, will climb higher if she continues to produce performances like this.
