Tennis player Justine Henin, from Belgium, returns the ball against Maria Sharapova, from Russia, during their Sony Ericsson Championships singles final match in Madrid, Sunday Nov. 11, 2007.
Photo: AP
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Astonishing Henin Prevails in Madrid
Maria Sharapova of Russia yielded to Justine Henin of Belgium in the tough final battle at the WTA Championships tennis tournament in Madrid November 11, 2007; the match lasted for nearly three hours and a half. In time, the end of the women’s final competitions coincided with the start of the men’s Master Cup tennis tournament in Shanghai. The first day sprang a surprise there. Novak Djokovic of Serbia was crushed by David Ferrer of Spain.
Although Maria Sharapova’s condition at the start of the WTA Championships gave rise to speculations, her form at the tournament proved a real surprise of the event. Indeed, Maria won all matches en route to the finals, easily beating her compatriot Anna Chakvetadze in the semis.
But Henin has been always difficult for Sharapova and exactly the Belgian, who had lost none of 24 matches in a row, was the obvious favorite of the finals. On Sunday, Justine was the first to get the breaking advantage in the first set and continued to manifest magnificent tennis exactly till the score of 2-1, when she was abruptly overwhelmed but errors and her first serve hits didn’t exceed 50 percent.
As a result, Sharapova played back the break during the fourth game. The 12th game lasted for over half an hour with Henin playing back eight set-balls but losing the ninth one.
But the loss at the opener didn’t break the world number one, who is famous for psychological stability. So she continued to pressurize, won the second set and was stronger at the decider (5-7 7-5 6-3).
For Justine, it was the second victory at the WTA Championships in a row. Moreover, she won ten titles this season, having repeated the 1997 record of Martina Hingis.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Nov. 12, 2007
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