Clijsters saved by the rain, beats Sharapova in Cincinnati final

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Wilson Blade 9

Kim Clijsters wins Western and Southern Financial Group Women's Open in Cincinnati

Tenth seed Maria Sharapova wasted three match points as clouds were approaching Cincinnati and didn’t manage to be faster than the rain, so her final against fourth seed Kim Clijsters got suspended at 6-2 5-3 with Clijsters serving on deuce. You know how these rain delays can bring a turnaround and that’s exactly what happened. When play resumed, Clijsters took charge, won three successive games, soon after the tiebreak 7-4 and the deciding set 6-2. The victory slipped through Sharapova’s fingers and on top of everything she even needed a medical timeout for her ankle. Final score: 2-6 7-6(4) 6-2.

Maria Sharapova and Kim Clijsters finalists at Cincinnati

The world No.7 Clijsters has become the first WTA player this year to win three titles: Brisbane, Miami, and now Cincinnati. The Belgian improved to 4-0 in finals since her comeback and is now 38-17 in career finals.

En route to the Western & Southern Financial Group Women’s Open title Clijsters defeated Dinara Safina in the second round, Christina McHale in the third, seed No.11 Flavia Pennetta in the quarterfinals, Ana Ivanovic in the semifinals, and finally the three-time Grand Slam champion Sharapova.

By winning the Cincinnati title Clijsters earned $350,000, while Sharapova earned $175,000 as runner-up. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

14 COMMENTS

  1. Great fight back from Kim. She may have been a bit lucky with the rain delay coming to her aid but when she won the second set you knew she would win.

    I don’t know how bad Maria played the last two games before the rain came as we lost television pictures.

  2. Awesome but sooooooooooooo sad match. Stupid rain. Masha deserved to win, she played better. She cuold have won the 3rd set if she hadn’t been injured…

  3. I think Masha deserved to win , she played better than Kim, who among other things made a lot of double faults , before the interruption for rain Masha touched her ankle, so I think the break has been determined in this way, if they continued to play she probably would have closed the match!!

  4. I would like to correct what I wrote before 😛 …in the rush I associate the English word “ankle” with the Italian word “anca”, which means hip eheheh 😛 I noticed that during the meeting Masha touched her left hip, and I have not seen the third set because it was too late, so I have drawn hasty conclusions, but I still believe that Masha deserved the title 🙂

  5. Sharapova had it won. Clijsters wasn’t herself, but she ended up dealing with the rain delay better. Well done to her, she had a great week. Hopefully Sharapova’s injury isn’t too serious. If she has to miss the US Open that would be so unlucky for her…

  6. LuLinQa, thanks for the clarification, probably trying to watch simultaneously the match and Ghost Whisperer was not a good idea 😛

  7. Poor Sharpie :-(. And I thought she had it won.It’s the nerves, damn it. I think there’s no really rock-solid mentally tough woman on the tour at the moment, even Justine seems to be shaky at times and she used to be extremely solid in her first. Funnily enough, Clijsters used to be a headcase in her first careers but in her second one I think it’s the reverse.

  8. Nice post. It was a great effort from both players. It’s too bad Sharapova got injured in the third set. I hope she’s okay for the US Open, especially with the way she’s playing!

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