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2004
WTA Tour Championships News
Brad Falkner | November
11 , 2004
With the off season rapidly
approaching Serena Williams is looking to putting 2004 behind
her. And so, with the WTA year end championships as the remaining
item on her tennis docket, Williams still strives for perfection
in her final performance of the year. Her 7-6 (3) 7-5 triumph
over Elena Dementieva marked a step closer to her old form.
"I think I had a really good effort today." said
Williams. "It is a lot better than what I played yesterday."
Williams relied on an agressive all court attack to take out
a determined Dementieva, winning several clutch points throughout
the match at the net, while spraying the court with other
shots
"Although I didn't make most of my shots, I think that
trying to come to the net much more than what I have the whole
year combined and, you, know just different shots like a lob
and side shots," explained Williams. I've really been
working on that in the past few weeks just adding a new dimension
to my game. So I think that it has helped a lot."
In the evenings first match Amelie Mauresmo clearly demonstrated
how she obtained the number one ranking earlier this year
by blasting Vera Zvonareva off the court. Mauresmo dominated
the lopsided contest from start to finish alternating angles
and deep drives that kept the teary eyed Russian on the run.
In the final set, a frustrated Zvonareva slammed her racquet
into the court more often than she was able to hit winners
into it. The 6-1, 6-0 victory was Mauresmo's sixth consecutive
against Zvonarvera and her ninth in a row.
Mauresmo has notched five titles to her name this year, having
won Philadelphia, Linz, Berlin, Rome and Montreal. Mauresmo
arrived to L.A. in top form, having captured back-to-back
titles at Linz and Philadelphia and is looking to reach the
finals at the Championships for the second straight year.
Wimbledon queen Maria Sharapova reigned supreme in the evenings
feature match between the two hardest hitting Russians on
the WTA tour. Sharapova's game glistened with near perfection
as she produced 23 winners in the comfortable 6-1, 6-4 straight
set victory. The win was Sharapova's first in the pair's three
tour meetings.
"I knew it would be very difficult. But I didn't expect
she'd play so well." said Kuznetsova. "She was at
the top of her game today, hitting the ball very hard. And
I was thinking she is playing so great."
Sharapova, who pulled out of last weekends semifinal match
in Philadelphia against Amelie Mauresmo, with a shoulder injury
showed no ill effects of the injury, connecting on 76% of
her first serves, while Kuznetsova surrendered her serve six
times converting a dismal 43% of her first serves.
"She was returning pretty good and I didn't serve that
well. She was putting pressure on me all the time." Said
Kuznetsova, the current US Open Champion.
"I was going into the match to play my game and try to
attack some, of the second serves." Sharapova said. "This
time, it was important to start off well and put some pressure
on her"
The seventh-ranked Sharapova has turned heads and sold tickets
in the process. Tournament organizers report that more than
4,000 additional tickets have been sold for the year-end event
since Sharapova qualified for the tournament on October 26th.
Kuznetsova started the 2004 season ranked No. 36, made history
as the lowest-seeded woman to win the U.S. Open in Open Era
history and is currently ranked fifth in the world.
Five of the top 12 players in the world Anastasia Myskina,
Dementieva, Kuznetsova, Sharapova, Zvonareva, and Nadia Petrova
are Russian women. Five of the six are here in LA for the
finals. These rivalries range from friendly to absolute acrimony,
fueling each woman's desire to rule as Russia's premier player.
The eight elite players competing in the year end championships
are assigned to Red and Black four-woman groups and play each
other once. The red group is comprised of Lindsay Davenport,
Serena Williams, Anastasia Myskina, and Elena Dementieva.
The Black group consists of Amelie Muaresmo, Svetlana Kuznetsova,
Maria Sharapova, and Vera Zvonareva. The two players with
the best record from each group advance to Sunday's semifinals.
The singles winner will earn $1 million and a car to donate
to charity. Each player will play a minimum of three matches
before the top four players reach the semifinals.
Friday nights opening match will be a rematch of this falls
Kremlin Cup semifinal clash between Lindsay Davenport and
Anastsia Myskina followed by Maria Sharapova vs Vera Zvonarvea
concluding with Amalie Mauresmo vs Svetlana Kuznetsova.
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