Agnieszska Radwanska won her ninth career title and is now ranked at a career best No. 4 in the world by capturing the Sony Ericsson Open topping Russian Maria Sharapova 7-5, 6-4.
“I really played well today, from the beginning till the end,” Radwanska said. “I was really focusing on my serve, and I’m very happy I didn’t lose my serve. It was actually I think the key on this match.
“I think I was just playing very good today. Everything was working. I couldn’t complain about anything.
“So, you know, I was just I went on court, you know, I’m playing against a really good player, top player, second in the world right now. Pretty much nothing to lose.
“But, you know, it’s just a great feeling, you know, to beat those kind of players, especially, you know, in the final and, you know, playing great tennis.â€
Maria Sharapova had very strong service games until the final game in each set, where she was broken. Sharapova was hurt the most in this first set was the fact that she was trying to be aggressive on her return of serve but made too many unforced errors.
Radwanska was not an easy opponent to play because every ball comes back and Sharapova has to be the aggressor and go for her shots.
“I thought she played extremely well today,†Sharapova said, “ was very consistent, got that extra ball back and I made that extra mistake. She didn’t give me many errors. When I had my chances at break point, I didn’t take them. When she had them, she did.
“I definitely didn’t return well. I wasn’t aggressive on that shot. When I did have second‑serve opportunities, you know, she’s serving at 70 miles per hour and I’m not winning those points, there’s something wrong with that.
“You know, I for sure should have won a lot of those secondserve points. I just didn’t.
“You want to put pressure on her to go for a little bit more maybe when she’s, you know, moving, but she moved extremely well.
“She hit a lot of good balls on the run and they were deep. She didn’t just bring them back; she had something on them.
“Then the few errors on important points that I made I thought were you know, maybe I shouldn’t have gone for the line so much, you know, aimed a little bit closer to the middle.â€
Sharapova committed 45 unforced errors and fell to 0-4 in Miami finals.
One can’t forget the fitness part of the game, it’s never easy playing Radwanska. She makes opponents run all over the place, and uses drop shots and lobs to win the point. The Pole has great hands and incredible court placement, with a superb awareness of where the opponent is in the court.
“I think my tennis, it’s just, you know, trying to mix it up, everything,†Radwanska said.
“I was just, I think, born with that. Of course my father is coaching me almost all my life, 18 years already. It’s pretty long.
“But, you know, when we are practicing, we always try to improve, you know, everything. You know, there’s always something to improve. So it’s never been one shot, you know, one thing. It’s just when we practice, we practice everything. So that’s what we were doing all my life pretty much.
“It’s a great feeling to win tournament like this here in Miami. It’s the biggest tournament after Grand Slams, especially like with all the top players, you know.
“You know, you have to play now six very good matches to win this tournament. So I’m just extremely happy that, you know, I could win almost the second tournament in a row after Beijing.â€
Radwanska is 26-4 for 2012, 0-4 in 2012 against No. 1 Victoria Azarenka and 26-0 against the rest of the WTA Tour.
Videos from earlier in the tournament
From Tennis Channel