BRISBANE: Maria Sharapova claimed her 34th career title and closed the gap on the No. 1 ranking with a 6-7 (4), 6-3, 6-3 win over Ana Ivanovic at the Brisbane International final here on Saturday.
Top-seed Sharapova raced to 4-1 lead and had set points in the 11th game but No. 2-seeded Ivanovic fought back to take the hour-long set in a tiebreaker.
Sharapova earned early service breaks in the next two sets and held for victory, giving her the chance to overhaul Serena Williams for top spot in the rankings depending on results at the Australian Open, starting on Jan 19.
Roger Federer has a chance to go into the Australian Open with 1,000 career match wins to his credit after beating fourth-seeded Grigor Dimitrov 6-2, 6-2 on Saturday to reach the final of the Brisbane International.
The 17-time Grand Slam champion came into the 2015 season with 996 wins and has had three more on the way to Sunday’s final, where he’ll meet third-seeded Milos Raonic. He has a 7-1 win-loss record against the 24-year-old Canadian, who served 34 aces to grind out a 6-7 (4), 7-6 (4), 7-6 (4) win over second-seeded Kei Nishikori in the other semi-final.
The third-seeded Raonic appeared to grow in confidence as the match progressed against US Open finalist Nishikori, earning three match points with an ace in the third tiebreaker and then clinching it after 2 1/2 hours with a stunning forehand service return.
It was his second win in six matches against Nishikori. Neither player dropped serve in the match, meaning Nishikori exited the tournament without being broken in a service game.
Eventually, though, the quick points Raonic was able to pick up on his booming serve made the difference.
Venus Williams won her first title of the year when she recovered from a set and a break down for a 2-6, 6-3, 6-3 win over top-seeded
Carolina Wozniacki in the final of the ASB Classic at Auckland, New Zealand.
FERRER FACES BERDYCH IN FINAL
DOHA: David Ferrer, who has played much of his career in the shadow of Rafael Nadal, earned himself the chance to atone for his compatriot’s first-round loss by reaching the final of the Qatar Open.
Ferrer goes on to face Tomas Berdych for the title after a victory in three tie-break sets against Ivo Karlovic ended a remarkable sequence from a unique opponent.
The giant Croatian became the first active player to pass 9,000 aces on Wednesday, knocked out the world number one Novak Djokovic on Thursday, and delivered 30 aces which carried him past the former US Open champion Andy Roddick’s total of 9,074 on Friday.
Karlovic is stil1 1,111 aces behind Croatian compatriot Goran Ivanisevic’s 10,183, which is the all-time record, but he allowed two tight chances of reaching the final to slip away in the second and third sets.
That though had much to do with Ferrer’s stubbornness and courage in a 6-7 (2-7), 7-6 (7-5), 7-6 (7-4) win in which there were no breaks of serve.
Ferrer’s opponent in the final will be Berdych, the third-seeded Czech who outplayed Andreas Seppi 6-2, 6-3 and who appears to be the form player of the tournament, so far not having dropped a service game.
Nadal was not completely out of the limelight.
The 14-time Grand Slam champion followed his shock loss to Michael Berrer, a qualifier from Germany ranked outside the top 100, when he won the doubles with Juan Monaco of Argentina, beating Julian Knowle and Philipp Oswald of Austria 6-3, 6-4.
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