Asked yesterday about the holes in her jeans, Victoria Azarenka joked that she was “trying to win the final to afford a new ones.” Asked about the grunting, she joked that Maria Sharapova is louder, then playfully told the journalist, “You’re going to have to wear earplugs.” After beating Vera Zvonareva in the semifinals, she joked with the crowd about their imitation grunting, saying, “Thanks, guys, for keeping it interesting with the ‘whoos’ for me. I love it.”
Azarenka has joked around a lot lately, but there was nothing funny about today’s final. She came to play and did just that, beating Sharapova, 6-1, 6-4.
This, along with her 2009 Miami title, counts as the biggest of her career. She’s now the eighth woman to win Miami at least twice.
It turns out third time wasn’t the charm for Sharapova, who lost earlier Miami finals to Kim Clijsters and Svetlana Kuznetsova. Sharapova won the fewest games in a final since her 6-4, 6-1 loss to Azarenka in Stanford last year. In terms of games won, both matches are her second-worst final losses, her first being the 6-1, 6-2 defeat to Serena Williams at the 2007 Australian Open.
Azarenka outplayed Sharapova offensively and defensively. She swung away, but by giving herself more margin for error, did so more responsibly than usual and certainly more responsibly than Sharapova today. Azarenka hit nearly the same number of winners as Sharapova (19 to 21) but less than half as many errors (21 to 43). Azarenka served well too, making 69 percent of her first serves. For the tournament overall, going into this match, she was in second place for most service games won. (She and Sam Stosur were tied at 77 percent.)
You know Sharapova can fight but, as Mary Joe Fernandez pointed out, you can also see more “doubts and hesitation and insecurity.” You could see that when, down 1-5 in the first set, Sharapova tried to hit a drop shot she shouldn’t have attempted and ended up mistiming it; the ball fell a few feet from her. You could see that a few points before, when Azarenka hit a great backhand passing shot, partly because Sharapova approached so tentatively. You could see that in the second set, too, when Sharapova was broken for the first time after she served a double fault. In fact, Sharapova held just once in this match.
Sharapova, who will be back in the Top 10 next week, is still a force to be reckoned with and likely will be until she retires. Andrea Petkovic, who wasn’t in the final today but may have gotten the most attention in Miami, said it well. Dissecting her semifinal loss to Sharapova, she paused to search for the words she instinctively felt about her opponent, and found these: “She has a great presence on court, and that makes a difference.” Yet more often these days, perhaps because of the lingering shoulder issues and other factors, you also can’t help but think of what Mary Carillo said today: “As happens with Maria, sometimes she battles better than she plays.”
This win gives Azarenka the edge in her head-to-head against Sharapova. (She’s now 3-2.) It also gives her a sixth career singles title and gets her back to her career-high No. 6 ranking. Before this match she admitted the ranking is something she thinks about, but added it’s not her “main priority.” That presumably would be bigger titles—especially a Grand Slam title. Many thought she’d be the next young player to win one, and with two Slams coming up, perhaps the main thing this win will do is make us think that way again.
—Bobby Chintapalli