Maria Sharapova has started her new 2015 season on a high, winning the Brisbane Tennis International by edging out Ana Ivanovic in a thrilling final.
The first duel between the Russian and the Serbian crowd favorites in 2015 was every bit as intense as experts & fans had hoped for, providing more than two and a half hours of exciting tennis that kept the fans on on the edge of their seats as Sharapova took the match 6-7(4) 6-3 6-3.
After Sharapova edged out a lead early into the first set, Ivanovic came rallying back, deciding the first set tiebreak in her favor. The Russian successfully regrouped in the second set despite Ivanovic’s very solid serving performance, forcing a third-set decider, much to the delight of the 12,315 fans in Brisbane’s Pat Rafter Arena.
Ivanovic left the court after the second set for a medical timeout to have a stomach taping redone. The Serbian was unable to swing the momentum back in her favour in the third set, as Sharapova successfully took her match point after more than 2 1/2 hours of exciting tennis.
Aside from securing her 34th career title and becoming one of the betting favorites for the upcoming Australian Open, Sharapova’s successful championship run also brings her in sight of taking over the #1 ranking, since the points gap to long-term rival Serena Williams is now down to less than 600 points ahead of the first slam of the year.
While both Sharapova & Ivanovic will now enjoy an off-week in their preparation for the Australian Open, Women’s Tennis Blog won’t slow down as we will bring you live coverage from the Hobart International starting next week.
you have taken great photos through out the tournament and many memorable ones especially Ana’s and maria’s I hope you get more passes from other tournaments as well so that we wtb readers have access to exclusive great photos 😀 This has been fantastic week for wta in general except for kvitova falling in semis we had great finals Ana vs maria , caroline vs venus , serena vs aga… hope we have great matches at aussie open too… and through out this season
Sru, I find Jimmie48’s photos of Ana are especially astonishing. He captured such a variety of her emotions and motions! 🙂 I think he has the best photos of Ana out there. This 1st week of the season was super busy, with Brisbane, Hopman Cup, Auckland and Shenzhen, and there was quality action everywhere. Thumbs up for the 2015 season so far. Let’s now cross our fingers for the exciting Hobart.
Emman Damian, we got all we wanted from the Brisbane final. I’m so glad it was Ana vs. Maria and that they gave us a thrilling battle.
James, thanks! You’re, of course, free to use the photos on your blog, just mention us in the photo credit 🙂
It was the dream final. I’m a bit disappointed that Ana had some injuries along the way but overall I’m satisfied with her performance. The old Ana would have lost the quarterfinals. She did well with her tough QF and SF matches against Kanepi and Lepchenko.
Congratulations to Jimmie for the great photos. Well done! I am following you in twitter and you provide photos immediately to fans. Jimmie – I hope you’ll have more passes this year. I’ll definitely look forward to the Hobart coverage. Have a safe trip!
To sru – I agree. If it was Simona vs Petra in Shenzhen, it could have been a blockbuster first week: Ana vs Maria, Caro vs Venus, Aga vs Serena and supposedly Simona vs Petra. Oh well, I hope we’ll see more of that in the next few tournaments.
Fantastic coverage this week, thanks for all the photos!
She (Ana) was sooo pissed for loosing that final….I think she was about to scream with anger when Sharapova was giving her ceremony speech, you could see it in her face ….
Yeah. I actually saw it in her face and she’s about to cry. I hope she can recover and take revenge on Maria. It will be another thrilling fun match!
That’s why genuine friendships on the WTA Tour are very difficult to achieve. To be a top player you have to be highly competitive. I hope that Ana will get a chance for revenge soon. This final was a pleasure to watch.
I am hoping for many more Ana vs Maria finals this year. I got my high hopes for both ladies.