Azarenka brushes aside Sharapova to win first Grand Slam in Melbourne

Sunday 29 January 2012

The women's tour has a new No 1 and on the evidence of yesterday's stunning 6-3, 6-0 win over Maria Sharapova in the final of the Australian Open, Victoria Azarenka could take an awful lot of stopping over the months to come.

Victoria Azarenka celebrates victory at the Australian Open Photograph: Reuters

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Simon Cambers

On her first appearance in a Grand Slam final, the 22-year-old overcame an early bout of nerves to outplay Sharapova in every department, winning nine straight games from 3-3 to become the first woman from Belarussia to win one of the sport's four biggest titles.

The victory also means she will replace Caroline Wozniacki at the top of the rankings tomorrow and the manner of her victory will have been noted by all her rivals for the other three Grand Slam titles and the world No 1 spot."Well, it's a dream come true," Azarenka said after soaking herself in champagne in the players' lounge after her victory. "I have been dreaming and working so hard to win a Grand Slam and being No 1 is pretty good bonus for that."It was always going to be difficult to match the drama of the previous two nights at Melbourne Park when first Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, then Novak Djokovic and Andy Murray thrilled the crowds with tennis of the highest quality in their respective semi-finals.The match had also been billed as the battle of the screamers, with one Australian newspaper advising fans to "bring their earplugs" to block out the high-pitched grunts of both women.Host broadcaster Channel 7 registered the two players at 94.3 decibels on their special gizmo, the "whoo-ometer" but though one fan yelled "turn the volume down" in the second game, the tennis soon took over their attention.With Sharapova having won three of her five previous Grand Slam finals, the Russian had more than an edge in terms of experience and an ominous start by Azarenka, including a couple of shaky double faults, handed Sharapova a 2-0 lead.But once she had held serve in the next game, Azarenka relaxed and from then on she was the better player throughout.Sharapova's plan A was to attack the Azarenka second serve but unusually, her groundstrokes failed to click and she sprayed unforced errors long and into the net with far too much regularity.Azarenka used her greater agility and greater variety to good effect as she soaked up the Russian's power before moving her around the court and exploiting the space.It was the perfect game-plan and from 3-3 in the first set she won nine straight games, showing no obvious signs of nerves as she served out for victory, saving a break point in the process.When Sharapova's final backhand found the net, Azarenka sank to her knees and held her hands up in disbelief."Right after the win I couldn't understand what's happening," she said. "I could not believe the tournament is over because it's been so long, this road since Sydney [earlier this month]. "I didn't have one day off so it kind of kept going, kept going and right now it still hasn't hit me that it's over and I won this. I will keep enjoying it."Azarenka admitted she had been nervous going into the match. "The first two games were a little bit of a disaster but then I kind of got the momentum going," she said. "I relaxed and I started to focus on the moment, trying to do whatever it takes to win that point."Having won that first Grand Slam title, Azarenka said she felt like anything was possible with regard to the three other Grand Slam events this year."I really have to keep my mentality the same," she said. "It's going to be a long year. It's going to be a lot of matches. I just want to keep improving. But I feel like there is no limit, really. If I can try my best every day, I can achieve a little bit more, little by little. That's my mentality, how I have been working hard."For Sharapova, it was almost déjà vu after her defeat by Petra Kvitova in the Wimbledon final last summer, and the Russian just said it had been a bad day."The switch kind of went off," she said.

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Azarenka brushes aside Sharapova to win first Grand Slam in Melbourne

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