Sharapova defeats Davenport to win Tokyo Open

TeamWTA photo
By Maarten Heida
February 6 2005

In the final of the Toray Pan Pacific Open Maria Sharapova managed to fend off the challenge of Lindsay Davenport after easily winning the first set, to take the first Tier 1-title of her career in 3 sets, 6-1 3-6, 7-6(5).

Before a very respectful and sometimes quiet crowd Maria Sharapova easily dispatched Lindsay Davenport in the first set. Davenport made too many unforced errors to even think about winning the first set, losing it by 6-1.

Sharapova seemed to relax a little bit too much, perhaps thinking that she had already won the title, and lost her serve immediately in the second set. Davenport took maximum advantage of Sharapova’s lapse in concentration and managed to serve out the set, taking it 6-3.

In the final set both players were fully focused, which resulted in mostly easy service games for both players. An occasional breakpoint didn’t deter either of the players with strong serves and punishing groundstrokes. This, understandably, lead to a final set tie-break.

After going up 1-0, Sharapova immediately took a mini-break after a poor second serve by Davenport. But, after taking the second point on her own serve to come back to 2-1, Davenport managed an excellent return to force Sharapova into a mistake to take back the mini-break. Then, after going down 3-2, it was Davenport’s turn again to lose a service point to go down 4-2 with another poor second serve.

The second mini-break after that was however of Sharapova’s doing, who created the point with an excellent return to grab the match by the scruff of it’s neck by going up 5-2. After splitting Sharapova’s service points, Davenport managed to put the pressure on Sharapova by taking her own 2 service points, to let Sharapova serve out the match herself at 6-5.

Sharapova then produced a good serve to put pressure on Davenport and take control of the rally and finished off the match with an excellent forehand. This gave Sharapova her first Tier 1-title, lifting her to a career-high 3rd place in the world.