SAN DIEGO, 7 August 2007 — Top seed Maria Sharapova won her first title of the year by beating Patty Schnyder 6-2, 3-6, 6-0 in the San Diego Classic final on Sunday.
Sharapova used a powerful baseline attack to break the left-handed Swiss six times amid a flurry of 37 winners, but she did not have things all her own way.
After Sharapova closed out the first set by ripping a backhand down the line, the 11th-seeded Schnyder cleverly began to move the tall Russian around the court.
She broke to 5-3 in the second set when Sharapova missed a forehand and leveled the match with a 110-mph service winner.
Between sets, Sharapova’s coach Michael Joyce told her to stop being so tentative and she came out roaring in the third set, breaking Schnyder to 2-0 when the Swiss erred on a drop shot.
“In the first set I hit some really good shots when she was serving and that opened doors for me,” Sharapova told reporters.
“In the second set I lost that extra step and once you give her a little edge, she’s going to get a lot of balls back and she’s not going to waste her time. I hesitated for too many balls and I knew I had to step in and hit it again.” Sharapova never looked back, breaking Schnyder to 4-0 with a blazing forehand and winning the match with another forehand winner.
“Once she’s on a roll, she sticks with it doesn’t give a chance,” Schnyder said. “She puts pressure on you whenever she has break points and you have to save them.
“She’s a champion and you know you have to come up with something special.” In the last year of the San Diego Classic, which has been sold to Beijing, Sharapova become the first woman to defend the title since Venus Williams in 2002.
“I know what happened last year when I won here and then went on to win the US Open, so this gives me a lot of confidence,” Sharapova said.
It was the world No. 2 Russian’s first title since winning the Linz tournament in October.
“It’s such a thin line,” Sharapova said. “I’d rather be in a grand slam final then win a Tier IV tournament. I could easily play 30 tournaments a year like some of the other girls if I really wanted to win a tournament, but that’s physically impossible for me.
“I play the big ones and the ones that count and that I feel that I’m ready for. If I didn’t win one before this one, than so what, I’ve won plenty before.” Sharapova will be top seed at next week’s Los Angeles Classic.
Roddick Brings Isner Back to
Earth in DC Final
In Washington, top seed Andy Roddick ended the fairy tale run of 416th-ranked John Isner by beating the tour rookie 6-4, 7-6 in the $600,000 Washington Open on Sunday.
Roddick served a modest 12 aces in the 80-minute match but had the only service break between the two hard-hitting Americans.
Isner, 22, entered the final having been broken only four times in 86 service games this week but Roddick broke the 2007 NCAA finalist from the University of Georgia in the seventh game of the opening set to take a 4-3 lead.
Roddick served out the set knowing he still had work to do as the towering Isner had won each of his previous matches this week in third-set tiebreakers.
In the second-set tiebreaker, Roddick achieved a mini-break to take a 3-1 lead and served out the match for a 7-4 triumph.
“I felt like I was putting pressure on him,” Roddick said after his 23rd career title. “If he wasn’t winning the point on his serve, then felt like I had a pretty good shot at the point.
“I was making him serve well out of jams. I had him up against it in the second set but he came up with aces. There’s really not much you can do about that.”
Isner, a North Carolina native playing in just his second ATP tournament, gained entry into the Washington event as a wild card when Fernando Gonzalez withdrew with a sore back.
Among his upset victims this week were number two Tommy Haas, No. 8 seed Benjamin Becker, ninth-seeded Gael Monfils and Britain’s Tim Henman.
“I had so many memories here,” said the 6-foot-9 Isner, who turned pro two months ago and does not yet have a coach. “Each match I thought was amazing but I kept on topping it.
“I’ll always remember playing Andy Roddick in an ATP final. You can never take that away from me. It’s a dream come true, an unbelievable honor. I’ll never, ever forget it.” Isner, wonderfully athletic for his height, had only 12 aces but was successful on 69 percent of his first serves.
“I wasn’t nervous, to tell you the truth,” said Isner, a first-round victim in his only other ATP event. “I knew I was going to hold my serve and I did for the most part.”
Clement Sets Up Montreal
Clash With In-Form Roddick
In Montreal, Frenchman Arnaud Clement set up a clash with in-form Andy Roddick at the Montreal Masters after seeing off Canadian wildcard Philip Bester 7-6, 6-2 in the first round on Sunday.
World No. 30 Clement, ranked 615 places above his opponent, won a tough first set before easing through the second to seal a meeting with fifth seed Roddick.
American Roddick, champion in 2003, comes into the event fresh from winning his second title of the year at the Legg-Mason Classic in Washington.
Top seed Roger Federer and No. 2 Rafael Nadal, together with the other leading eight seeds, receive byes into the second round.
In Sunday’s other singles matches, there were wins for German Nicolas Kiefer and Czech Radek Stepanek.
Kiefer, playing just his fifth tournament of the season after missing more than a year because of a wrist injury, came from behind to beat Russian Dmitry Tursunov 1-6, 6-4, 6-3.
Stepanek cruised past Jonas Bjorkman 6-4, 6-1 to record his first win over the veteran Swede in five meetings.
