Serena and Sharapova Set to Clash for Sony Open Title

March 29, 2013 | By Long Island Tennis Magazine Staff
Serena_Williams_01_7
Photo credit: Kenneth B. Goldberg

Serena Williams has advanced to the finals of the 2013 Sony Open in Miami after a dominating 6-0, 6-3 win over Agnieszka Radwanska. With the win, Serena broke Steffi Graf’s record for most match wins in the history of the Sony Open. With the win, the top-seeded Serena will face the three seed, Maria Sharapova, who defeated the 22nd-seed Jelena Jankovic in straight sets 6-2, 6-1. Sharapova has now beaten Jankovic in seven of their eight career meetings.

Serena now has 60 career match wins at the Sony Open, passing Graf’s previous record of 59. If she wins her sixth Sony Open Tennis title on Saturday, she will pass Graf’s record of five titles. 

"It definitely felt really good today," said Serena. "I kept my unforced errors rather low. On a couple shots out there, I think I got pretty lucky, but I’ve been practicing really hard and it’s all just paying off, so I don’t know if it’s luck. I don’t believe in luck—I believe in hard work."

Sharapova, who has now won 11 matches and 22 sets in a row, en route to her fifth final at the Sony Open Tennis, but has gone 0-4 in her first four finals, finishing runner-up in 2005 (to Kim Clijsters), 2006 (to Svetlana Kuznetsova), 2011 (to Victoria Azarenka) and 2012 (to Agnieszka Radwanska). Serena leads Sharapova in their head-to-head series with a very one-sided 11-2 record, and has won their last 10 meetings.

"It’s another final," Sharapova said. "It’s great to be putting myself in a position at this tournament to get into finals. I don’t know who has been in five finals of this event in the women’s draw. I haven’t won this title yet though, so it would mean a lot for me to be the champion here this year."


Long Island Tennis Magazine Staff
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