Sharapova’s Shining Year Ends in Triumph

LOS ANGELES, 17 November 2004 — Wimbledon champion Maria Sharapova capped her stunning year by overcoming an injured Serena Williams 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 in the final of the season-ending WTA Tour Championships on Monday.

“I’m still in shock. I can’t believe the way I pulled it out,” said the 17-year-old Russian, who fell to the ground and screamed with joy at the end of a contest lasting one hour 46 minutes.

“It’s very unreal the way I stuck in there. It’s been an amazing year.”

After falling behind 4-0 in the third set, the teenager reeled off six games in a row to overpower a hobbling Williams.

The American took a medical timeout for treatment on an abdominal strain after the seventh game of the second set.

After returning to the court 5-2 down, Williams lost about 40 mph from her service speed and had trouble moving to her right.

Williams said she felt the injury come on in the opening game of the match.

“I really thought it was just a stitch, and it would go away,” Serena said. “I thought at times I wouldn’t finish, but I like to fight. On a 0-10 scale, the pain was a 10 and a half.”

“It’s extremely disappointing. I figured I had a good chance at this title.”

Serena recalled the 2003 Wimbledon semi-final when her sister Venus continued to play against Kim Clijsters despite an abdominal strain and eventually tore it in the match. Venus did play the final where she lost to Serena, but she was then off the tour for the next six months. Sharapova easily closed out the second set but, in the third, Williams began to go for broke off the ground and cracked winners to all angles of the court to storm into a 4-0 lead.

The young Russian eventually took a foothold in the final set when she held serve at 4-0 down and, with Williams wilting, hit back to seal a victory, which earned her $1 million.

Federer Makes Triumphant Return in Title Defense

In Houston, Texas, top-ranked Roger Federer made a triumphant return from a six-week layoff to begin the defense of his ATP Masters Cup title while rain kept Lleyton Hewitt and Carlos Moya from finishing on Monday.

In his first match since winning last month’s Bangkok final, Federer displayed no hint of the torn left thigh muscle he suffered during an Oct. 25 workout in beating French Open champion Gaston Gaudio 6-1, 7-6 (7-4).

“I’m very happy with my game, not only after six weeks of no tournaments but two weeks of not playing any tennis at all,” Federer said. “This was very satisfying for me.” Triple Grand Slam winner Federer, who missed playing at Basel and Paris due to the injury, won his 19th match in a row over a top-10 rival, a streak the 23-year-old Swiss star began here last year with an unbeaten run to the title.

“To come back and play my first match after a long layoff — I’m glad it was a win — I can build on that for my next match and try to keep it going,” said Federer. “My focus was on the match, not ‘Will my leg be OK?’ I could push on it. I practiced four hours at one point. It was preparation like a regular tournament for me.” Federer fired eight aces to beat his Argentine foe in 91 minutes despite losing 12 of 14 break points in the round-robin opener of the season-ending $3.7 million showdown of eight top players.

Showers arrived six minutes into Federer’s Red Group round-robin match and halted play for two hours and 20 minutes, then relented but returned at night to delay the Hewitt-Moya start by three hours and 35 minutes. Third-ranked Hewitt led 5-4 and was ahead 0-30 on the Spaniard’s serve when showers stopped play for the night, sending the Australian off the court two points from taking the first set.