Lucie Safarova and Victoria Azarenka pose with QTF President Nasser al-Kheleifi and Total E&P Qatar
Managing Director Guillaume Chalmin. At right, the doubles winners and runners-up.
By Satya Rath/Doha
The scoreline read six-nil in favour of Lucie Safarova’s opponent. All those defeats were in straight sets; only once did it go to three sets. And that too, four years back.
The Czech’s best world ranking to date was 14, while Victoria Azarenka was a former world number one. She had never made it beyond the quarterfinals in Doha; Azarenka was a two-time winner of the Qatar Total Open and was coming into yesterday’s final on a 14-match win streak on the hard courts of the Khalifa Tennis Complex.
History and form both favoured Azarenka, but Safarova had the backing of a deep serve, a strong forehand and a potent backhand, and most importantly, a calm focus and a steely determination that she maintained throughout, none of which failed her when she needed them the most.
Finally, after one hour and 27 minutes of mostly high-quality tennis, the ice broke as the left-handed Safarova flashed a big smile. More than the 6-4, 6-3 scoreline, and her first win over the Belarusian after six futile attempts stretching back to 2007, the title win in Doha would also help her jump to a career-best world No. 11 from her current rank of 15th. The Qatar Total Open is her sixth WTA title but by far the biggest of them all, Doha being a Premier level event. Her first five WTA titles were all at the International level—Oeiras and Forest Hills in 2005, Gold Coast in 2006, Forest Hills again in 2008 and most recently Québec City in 2013.
It was a double blow for Azarenka, who not only saw her 14-match win streak in Doha come to a grinding halt, but also missed the chance to lay her hands on the glittering Diamond Ball trophy, given to a player who wins the Qatar Total Open singles title three times. The 25-year-old won back-to-back Doha titles in 2012 and 2013—she beat Australian Sam Stosur in the 2012 final and defeated American Serena Williams in the crunch match the following year.
Safarova made her intent clear form the very start when she broke Azarenka’s serve in the first game itself. Azarenka, who perhaps had exhausted much of her energy in getting past Venus Williams in Friday’s semifinal, looked slow in her movements and even before she could settle down, the Czech had raced to a 3-1 lead. She changed her strategy, and to negate Safarova’s deep returns, rushed to the net often, and the move seemed to pay off when she drew level at 3-3 by breaking back in the sixth game.
But Safarova was in a league of her own. She never let the two-time champion settle down, and perhaps realizing that her opponent looked a little jaded, made her run around hither and thither, often catching her wrong-footed.
Fortune, they say, favours the brave, and that little luck, which so often plays a vital role in the deciding the outcome of a game, was with the braver of the two. Her returns, more often than not, landed at the right spots, her lobs and drops were precise, and her top-spinning serve, despite a couple of double-faults, stood by her thoughout. Safarova snatched back the advantage by breaking Azarenka in the ninth and served with elan to take the set 6-4 in 44 minutes.
Another crucial break in the third game of the second, and deciding, set her on course. Azarenka tried everything she had in her reservoir to break back—she rushed to the net, she volleyed from the baseline, she tried to slow down the pace with drops and long lobs—but Safarova had an answer to all her tricks. When a tiring Azarenka served out the ninth game, trailing 3-5, her shoulders had drooped and the writing looked clear on the wall. Three of her service returns bulged the net, the fourth went wide, and it was all over for the Belarusian, who was given a wild card in Doha.
Safarova rated the win as among her best. “I mean, it’s up there. Obviously the semifinal at Wimbledon was a very high achievement for me as well. But this is the first premiere WTA win of my career, so I’m really excited. It has taken me quite a few years to get to this point. I hope it’s not a finish point and I can still improve upon that.”
She said her next target is to break into the top 10. “I will reach my best ranking after this win (No. 11). The next target would be, and my dream as well, would be top 10, which I’m really close now. It’s still a lot of hard work and everything has to click together, but I’m happy I am one step closer towards that goal.”
Azarenka was gracious in her defeat. “She deserved to win, she played great. She didn’t give away anything. I haven’t seen her play like this for a while. I think I wasn’t sharp enough, I wasn’t quick enough, but she was really dictating the pace. The way she played today it was really uncomfortable for me in my situation. I tried to change, I tried to do something different, but she was playing really well and really taking opportunities,” the Belarusian said.
Earlier, the American pairing of Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears ended the winning run of Sania Mirza and Hsieh Su-Wei 6-4, 6-4 in a scrappy doubles final. The top-seeded Indo-Taipei tandem of Sania and Hsieh, who had virtually bulldozed their way to the title round, looked a pale shadow of their dominating selves, and were broken thrice in each set by Kops-Jones and Spears, who too dropped their serve four times.
This was the first final for Sania and Hsieh, who have paired up for the first time this year. They made the semifinals in Brisbane in January, but could not advance beyond the second round at the Australian Open and at last week’s WTA Dubai Classic.
RESULTS
SINGLES: L Safarova (CZE) bt V Azarenka (BLR) 6-4, 6-3.
DOUBLES: 4-R Kops-Jones (USA)/A Spears (USA) bt 1-S Hsieh (TPE)/S Mirza (IND) 6-4, 6-4
