Just Deserts - 網球

Just Deserts
http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/tennis/news/story?id=2344528

Henin-Hardenne beats Sharapova for Dubai title
Reuters

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates -- Justine Henin-Hardenne won her 25th career
title on Saturday when she defeated Maria Sharapova 7-5, 6-2 in the final of
the Dubai Open.

It was the fourth-seeded Belgian's third Dubai title and her second
tournament victory of the year after winning in Sydney and finishing as
runner-up at the Australian Open in Melbourne.

"It's an amazing feeling," Henin-Hardenne told reporters. "It's great,
because I didn't know really what to expect before coming here after my
health problems in Australia.

"It's been a tough week even though I won all my matches in two sets. It's
been pretty hard with the rain and the waiting, and it's a great feeling to
have two victories already this year, and that gives a lot of confidence."

She also remains unbeaten in her 12 matches in Dubai after a high-quality
match in which both players mixed up their game well and produced some very
competitive rallies.

Third seed Sharapova, denied her 11th career title in her first final since
she won on grass in Birmingham in June, was particularly adventurous in
trying her luck at the net with varying degrees of success.

However, the 18-year-old Russian's limitations were exposed in the latter
stages when she lacked patience in the rallies and failed to build a winning
position.

Both players held easily in the first six games, each giving up just two
points on serve. But things changed dramatically after that with almost every
game being tightly contested.

Sharapova had to fight off two break points at 3-3, but then broke to lead
5-3 when she hit a drop shot so perfect that it caused her astonished
opponent to drop her racquet, and then mis-hit a backhand wide.

Henin-Hardenne, though, responded by denying Sharapova as she served for the
set and from 5-5 conceded just one more point.

Sharapova hit the ball long on break point, before the Belgian served out the
set to love in exactly an hour.

Henin-Hardenne broke to lead 3-2 in the second set when Sharapova netted a
forehand from the Belgian's fierce return.

Having moved exceptionally well throughout the match, Henin-Hardenne made it
count the most at 4-2 when she ran down a ball from Sharapova and made a
glorious backhand winner to earn a second break.

A dispirited Sharapova made one final effort to rescue the match, but
Henin-Hardenne held off two break points before claiming victory.

"I think it was high quality, especially in the first set," said
Henin-Hardenne. "Both of us were playing well. Maria put a lot of pressure on
myself, especially from the beginning to 5-3.

"I was a little bit too far from my baseline, but as soon as I put one step
forward and maybe tried to play a little bit more in the centre she didn't
have the angles."

Since her Birmingham victory last year, Sharapova had lost six straight
semifinals, including those of Wimbledon, the U.S. Open and the Australian
Open, until her win over Lindsay Davenport on Friday put her into this final.

So Sharapova could draw some consolation from her defeat.

"I played great tennis this week," she said. "It was a tremendous effort for
me to be able to play two really tough matches yesterday and still play a
high level of tennis today."

"In the first set it was just one or two balls didn't go my way I guess, and
then after that I was physically tired from yesterday."

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還挺喜歡ESPN每次拿"Just"(ine) 來作標題


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