Sharapova Won Back Golden Falcon
Maria Sharapova of Russia won the Golden Falcon award once she defeated her compatriot Vera Zvonareva in the final of the Qatar Open tennis tournament in Doha February 24, 2008.
The Doha tournament is, perhaps, the most successful event for the tennis players of Russia, and the fact that it is the first-category competition yielding in significance only to the Grand Slam battles adds another pleasing accent to this tradition.
The Russians have been always in the final in the last five years. Anastasia Myskina won the title in 2003 and defended it in 2004, Maria Sharapova replaced her in a year and Nadia Petrova was the 2006 winner. But for the loss of Svetlana Kuznetsova to Justine Henin, the Qatar tournament could be renamed into the overseas championship of Russia.
This year, however, the Golden Falcon was destined to be ours, no matter the outcome of the final standoff – both final players, Maria Sharapova and Vera Zvonareva, are of Russia’s origin. Although a sleeping beauty at the beginning, Maria predictably crashed her compatriot (6-1 2-6 6-0) to win her 18th career title and the second title of the year following her triumph at Australian Open and to extend her victorious series to 14 matches.
www.kommersant.com
All the Article in Russian as of Feb. 26, 2008
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