Tennis

Kuznetsova beats Sharapova in Key Biscayne final

(AP)
Updated: 2006-04-02 11:11

Fans will have another underdog to cheer for Sunday: No. 6-seeded Ivan Ljubicic of Croatia, playing his first final in the United States at age 27. He'll face top-seeded Roger Federer, the defending champion.

Kuznetsova broke serve to go up 3-1 in the opening set and led the rest of the way. As Sharapova fell behind, a small plane with an advertising banner hovered over the stadium, compounding her unhappiness. She gestured in annoyance at least twice and complained to the chair umpire about the noisy plane.

"It only circled around about 50 times," Sharapova said. "Pretty weird."

The county, which owns the tennis complex, worked with the Federal Aviation Administration to resolve the matter, and the plane departed after the first set.

"Maria didn't like it," Kuznetsova said. "I didn't want to get into it. I was just trying to get myself not to lose my concentration."

Video replay didn't help Sharapova, either. All 11 of her challenges were rejected, and Kuznetsova won her only challenge in the final.

En route to the title, Kuznetsova saved a match point in the fourth round against Martina Hingis and beat four top-25 players, including top-ranked Amelie Mauresmo in the semifinals. The championship was Kuznetsova's first since September 2004, when she won her first Grand Slam title at the U.S. Open and then won a small event in Indonesia a week later.

Last year she struggled with injuries, reached only one final and fell out of the top 10. But her fierce forehand is again a force on the women's tour.

"Before, I think I was trying to hit the ball too hard," she said. "Now I'm just playing like half my power, and the ball seems to go pretty fast, so I'm pretty excited about that."

Kuznetsova said her only regret about winning the tournament was that it left her with no time to shop. As consolation, she received $533,350 (euro440,640) for her first WTA Tour Tier I title.

She'll climb from 14th to 10th in next week's WTA Tour rankings, with Venus Williams slipping one spot to 11th.