Yaroslava Shvedova wins Sony Ericsson WTA Singles title

Bangalore, Feb 18 (UNI) Yaroslava Shvedova of Russia lifted her maiden WTA title winning the Sony Ericsson International WTA event dethroning top seeded Mara Santangelo of Italy in straight sets 6-4, 6-4 in the final played at KSLTA Stadium here tonight.

Unseeded Russian lass hailing from a little village near Moscow, who had shown the door to second seeded Sania Mirza in the quarterfinal on her way to finals, looked unbeatable with her deep and accurate serves and thundering ground strokes forcing the world no 36 from Italy to submission.

Earlier, top seeded Taipei pair Chan Yung-Jan and Chuang Chia-Jung defeated Su-Wei Hsieh of Taipie and Alla Kudryavtseva of Russia lifted the doubles title.

In a match that belonged to the teenaged Russian ranked 143 lasted just 95 minutes, Yeroslava displayed a superb skill in back hand strokes as well as placing the ball well out of the reach of Mara, who had won the event in this city last year, repeatedly.

A vital break in the third game Yeroslava an early 2-1 in the first set that took her to the first set win in just 44 minutes.

In the second set, Santangelo, the efforts of holding the service went bust as Yeroslava broke her in the second game and kept on the pressure to race to a 3-0 lead. Mara did her best by saving three game points at 3-4, but a determined Yaroslova, despite committing double fault in the 10th game, recovered well and served ace to take lead.

The 25 year old Santangelo, ranked 36, despite taking chances could hardly do anything against the marauding Russian making her commit errors. But it was Yaroslova who finished the set and the match with a superb backhand stroke to pocket USD 25,840.

Santangelo, whose dream of making it twice were shattered, had to be content with runnerup prize of USD 13,520.

UNI