Tokyo, Oct 05: Russia's new heart-throb Maria Sharapova captured her first WTA title when she outclassed Aniko Kapros of Hungary to win the women's singles at the Japan Open tennis tournament today.
Fresh from winning her first doubles title on the tour last night, the 16-year-old from Nyagan in Siberia used her hard-hit forehand shots to tame Kapros' accurate strokes to score a 2-6 6-2 7-6 (7/5) victory.
"I feel great. I just feel that this will be a special place for me in my whole life. I won my first professional tournament (in Japan), and this is a big one," said Sharapova.
"I've learned from every experience, especially now I won and I have a lot more confidence. I only have two tournaments at the end of this year. I just gonna go out there, just try to play good tennis to win."
Unseeded Kapros, ranked only 128th against Sharapova's 48th, hit some winners to the two sides and showed nimble footwork and craft court coverage to take the first set.



But serves on critical points from the 1.83-metre Russian girl made the difference as Kapros fell victim to Sharapova, who has a dangerous forehand and attacked any short balls or slow balls.



In the decicive final set, Kapros scored a break twice to go up 1-0 and 4-3, but each time Sharapova squared it at 1-1 and 4-4 before the Russian missed two match points in the 10th go to into tie-breaker.


Bureau Report