Sharapova Sweeps Final Six Games Against Serena to End Bizarre WTA Championships
Posted on November 16, 2004 |
| Maria Sharapova beats Serena Williams to win the WTA Championships. (WTA) |
Aggravating an already-existing abdominal injury at the end of the second set that limited her service motion, Williams compensated by swinging away from the baseline to begin the third, amassing a 4-0 lead against the stunned Sharapova who rolled her eyes and stared across the net in disbelief.
"After she got the medical treatment, I could tell that she had problems serving, but on the groundstrokes she was just teeing off on everything," Sharapova said. "Beside her serve, she didn't look injured once she was playing, so she was actually being really tough. I couldn't capitalize on the weak serves that she hit."
Once she leveled the match at 4-4 in the third, it was still not apparent whether the Russian could finish the job against Serena, who at this point was lobbing in the slowest of serves, grimacing with each delivery. Sharapova had spiked the choke-o-meter earlier in the match with some key double faults on game points on her own serve, and on one of Serena's puff-ball deliveries in the third buried the return in the middle of the net, but eventually screamed and pumped her fist to six consecutive games to end the match.
Williams left the court for a medical time-out at the end of the second set, treating the injury she said she felt as a slight twinge at the beginning of the match.
"It's definitely a muscle strain. I don't know how I stayed out there," Serena said. "I definitely thought about not finishing the match, but I like to fight, I guess."
While an abbreviated service motion initially served Williams well in the third with a handful off aces, she ended the set by just lobbing serves in play, mindful of the abdominal injury that sidelined her sister Venus for much of 2004.
"I was thinking, 'Oh my God, I'm not going to be out six months. I do not want this,'" Williams said. "I was thinking, 'Just go easy.' I wasn't going to go for any big serves. It's not worth it with the new year coming around the corner. I was just really trying to chill."
For the win Sharapova earned $1 million and a Porsche SUV she said she will donate to the survivors of the school shooting in Russian in September that left approximately 300 dead.
Serena for her part was gracious in defeat, only after the match lapsing into Serena Vision (c) to give her version of the reality of events. Before the match the tennis Diva said "I don't believe I played Wimbledon (her last loss to Sharapova), I don't know who it was, but that was someone else."
Who is was who lost to Sharapova Monday night remains to be seen, wrapping up a difficult injury-riddled year for the former No. 1.
"For a Serena year, it wasn't superb," Serena said. "It's been a really tough year for me."