WTA (Sun. 10/07): China Open FINALS

Written by: Staff on 7th October 2012

WTA (Sun. 10/07): China Open FINALS

epa03424533 Victoria Azarenka of Belarus shakes hands with Maria Sharapova of Russia after winning the final match at the China Open in Beijing, China, 07 October 2012. EPA/HOW HWEE YOUNG |

Women’s Singles: click here

Women’s Doubles: click here

*****

CHINA OPEN

Beijing, China

September 29-October 7, 2012

$4,828,050/Premier

Hard/Outdoors

Results – Sunday, October 7, 2012

Singles – Final

(1) Victoria Azarenka (BLR) d. (2) Maria Sharapova (RUS) 63 61

Doubles – Final (played Saturday)

(3) Makarova/Vesnina (RUS/RUS) d. (5) Llagostera Vives/Mirza (ESP/IND) 75 75

Final Facts

– Azarenka wins her 13th WTA title and fifth of 2012, having also won in Sydney, Doha, Indian Wells and at the Australian Open.

– Azarenka’s win-loss record in WTA finals now stands at 13-11, with 12 of these 13 wins coming on hardcourts.

– Azarenka becomes the first player since the introduction of Premier Mandatory events in 2009 to win two in a single season.

– Azarenka did not drop a set en route to the title, becoming the second champion to achieve this feat in the tournament’s nine-year history and the first since it was upgraded to a Premier Mandatory event in 2009.

– Sharapova falls to 27-18 in WTA finals, and 18-14 in hardcourt finals.

– Azarenka and Sharapova were meeting for the 11th time; Azarenka now leads the head-to-head record 7-4, with four of these wins coming in 2012.

– Makarova and Vesnina win their first WTA title together; Makarova now has two career titles to her name, while Vesnina has seven.

Final Quotes

Victoria Azarenka: “I was doing the right things, making sure I didn’t let Maria play the game she likes, always being in control and dominating. To win the China Open is a dream for me, because I’ve never been able to do so well here – so to overcome that and win such a big title at the end of the year is just incredible. I’m really happy I came and I conquered here.”

Maria Sharapova: “Victoria played a really good match – she just did many things much better than I did. They were little windows, but as small as they were, I just didn’t take them. Against somebody who is No.1 in the world, you can’t do that.”

Ekaterina Makarova: “Doubles can be up and down, and with no-ad scoring and the deciding point it’s tough to win every game. When they came back from 4-0 it was a tough moment for us, but we came back and won it in the end, and we’re just really happy we won the match and the tournament.”

Elena Vesnina: “This was such a strong tournament we weren’t planning on winning the whole thing, we were just thinking match by match. We had both been to the doubles final here before so we really wanted to win it this time.”