For the third time in 16 Sony Ericsson WTA Tour events this year, the Top 2 seeds do battle for the singles title as No.1 seed Ana Ivanovic and No.2 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova meet in the title match at Indian Wells Pacific Life Open.
In semifinal play Friday. Kuznetskova stunned Maria Sharapova 63, 57, 62 and snap her 18-match win streak. Ivanovic upended her Serbian countrywoman Jelana Jankovic 76(3), 63 to reach her first Indian Wells final.
In both prior 2008 Tour singles finals between the Top 2 seeds the No. 1 has won, with Justin Henin beating Kuznetsova in Sydney and Pennetta beating Alize Cornet in Acapulc. In fact, the No. 1 seed has gone 6-0 in Tour singles finals so far this season, while the No.2 seed has gone 0-4; the Top 2 seeds have also battled for the singles title on three previous occasions right here at Indian Wells, and the No. 1 has gone 2-1 in those (No. 1 Steffi Graf beat No. 2 Conchita Martínez in 1996 and No. 1 Martina Hingis beat No. 2 Lindsay Davenport in 1998, but No. 2 Davenport upset No.1 Hingis in 2000).
Ivanovic leads her series against Kuznetsova, 4-1, but all of her wins have come in three sets while Kuznetsova’s win came in straight sets. In their only prior meeting in a final, another Tier I final at Berlin last May, Ivanovic rallied back from a 5-3 third set deficit to win, 36 64 76(4), a win that propelled her into the Top 10 for the first time.
This is the third time Kuznetsova has ended a recently-crowned Australian Open champ’s double digit win streak. In 2004, she ruined Henin’s 16-0 start to the season with a 62 46 63 win in the semifinals of Doha in early March. In 2006, she ended Amelia Mauresmo’s 16-match run with a 76(11) 64 win in the quarterfinals of Dubai in late February. on Friday, she ruined Sharapova’s 18-0 start to the season with a 63 57 62 win in the semifinals of Indian Wells.
Although she is 9-14 lifetime in Tour singles finals, Kuznetsova has actually lost seven of her last eight, and that lone title came with an injury retirement win at New Haven last August (in the final, Szavay won the first set but retired with a back injury after losing the first three games of the second set, handing Kuznetsova the title). Aside from that, Kuznetsova has been runner-up in every final she has played since winning Beijing in September 2006.
Only one time in the 19 prior years of this event has a Russian won the singles title, in 2006 (Sharapova); no one representing Serbia has ever won (although Serbian-born Seles won the title in 1992 under the Yugoslavian flag).
Yan Zi and Zheng Jie have made an impressive comeback this year after Zheng missed the second half of 2007 due to a left ankle injury; playing exclusively with each other they are 20-5, winning their 11th Tour doubles title at Sydney and making finals at Gold Coast, Dubai and now here; they have prevailed at the Tier I level or above four times before, winning China’s first ever majors at the Australian Open and Wimbledon in 2006 and Tier Is at Berlin in 2006 and Charleston in 2007; they are the first Chinese women ever to play the Indian Wells finals weekend.
Dinara Safina and Elena Vesnina had played only four matches as a team coming into Indian Wells, going 2-2 in those; but they’ve come alive this fortnight, taking out three seeded teams to reach their first final together, and will now chase their first Tour doubles title as a team; Safina in particular has experience on some of the biggest doubles stages, winning the 2007 US Open (with Dechy) and reaching the 2006 US Open final (with Srebotnik). (WTA)
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