Fourth seed Vera Zvonareva completed the sweep of the singles and doubles titles at the 2009 BNP Paribas Open as she defeated defending champion Ana Ivanovic 7-6(5), 6-2 on Sunday in Indian Wells.
The Russian, who teamed up with Belarusian Victoria Azarenka to clinch the doubles title Saturday, is the second player after Lindsay Davenport to win both women’s titles during the same tournament week at Indian Wells. The American accomplished the feat in 1997 (w/Zvereva) and again in 2000 (w/Morariu).
“I've been watching this tournament since I was a kid,” said Zvonareva. “It's been on TV back home so many years. It's basically one of the biggest events after the major. I think it means a lot to everyone who is able to win it, because you have to beat so many top players on the way to get the title.”
Though Ivanovic assumed the first break of serve to go up 2-0, the fifth-seeded Serbian struggled with the windy conditions – gusting more than 30 miles per hour – and lost the next four games, including a double fault to give Zvonareva the break in the fourth game. Ivanovic pulled level at 4-all and then threatened to take a set off of Zvonareva for the first time during the tournament, but failed to convert her four set points at 6-5. Zvonareva closed out the one hour, 18 minute opening set on her first opportunity as Ivanovic committed her 41st unforced error.
Ivanovic once again opened the second set with a break, but then was held off the board the remainder of the way. She lost the final six games of the match, Zvonareva clinching the championship when Ivanovic’s return flew long.
“Even though I had some mistakes and some frustrating points with the wind, I was still trying to put as many balls as I can in the court,” said Zvonareva. “It was very important today to try to concentrate, try to keep my serves, serve percentage as high as possible. I was fighting for every point no matter what. Even if I was down love-40 in the game I was playing for it. Maybe I was a little bit better at doing that today than Ana.”
Ivanovic said after the match: “It was the toughest conditions I ever played in. It was very, very windy, and I think it wasn't much about game and game plan today. It was just who can handle the conditions better, and who can stay probably mentally tougher through it. Today she did. She played really well.”
The 24-year-old Zvonareva will move back up to a career-high No. 5 ranking with her ninth career singles title on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour. She boasts the best wins/loss record on the circuit, at 18-2 following the final. She reached her first career Grand Slam semifinal at the Australian Open, afterwards making her debut in the Top 5, and won the Pattaya City title last month.
Ivanovic was attempting to join 1990-91 champion Martina Navratilova as the only players to successfully defend the Indian Wells titles. Last year as the top seed, she had defeated Zvonareva in a straight-sets quarterfinal before going on to claim the title with victories over No. 3 seed Jelena Jankovic and No. 2 Svetlana Kuznetsova in the final two rounds.
(From Website : http://www.bnpparibasopen.org/1/news/newsarticle_2754.asp)
