By Chris Oddo | Saturday, January 10, 2015
Becoming No. 1 in the world may be the furthest thing from her mind, but Maria Sharapova played like a woman who is hot pursuit of the WTA’s top spot in Saturday night’s Brisbane final, rallying from a set down to close out Ana Ivanovic, 6-7(4), 6-3, 6-3.
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Sharapova’s tenth victory in fourteen career battles with Ivanovic marks the Russian’s 34th career title and places her 681 ranking points behind Serena Williams heading into the Australian Open.
But Sharapova was more concerned with earning another gritty victory than closing in on the woman who has dominated her over the last decade.
“It was nice in the off season not having to hear anything about ranking,” Sharapova told reporters. “I think that's just a question that comes up throughout the year. It's a nice thing to write about and it gives people a topic to write about. But maybe if I was a teenager or someone that was just looking to kind of break through and be No. 1 for the first time maybe I would be more upbeat about it.”
Sharapova blew a 4-1 lead to Ivanovic in the opening set, eventually losing in the tiebreaker. But her competitive instincts and warrior spirit kicked in as she engineered yet another comeback from a set down to take the title.
Sharapova is second all-time among active WTA players in winning percentage when dropping the first set, and she owns a career record of 142-46 over the course of her illustrious career in matches that have gone the distance.
She would have to battle past a feisty Ivanovic, as each of the final sets was close, with Sharapova building and struggling to maintain slim leads to get to the finish line.
“There were not many unforced errors, I would say,” Ivanovic said afterwards. “We both played high quality match I thought. Last two sets were a lot closer than maybe score indicates. There were really few points that decided here and there.”
Sharapova, who broke serve on six of 16 opportunites and saved six of nine, echoed Ivanovic’s sentiment. “The third set came down to a few points really,” she said. “Even though I was up a break, she was returning quite well and still serving very well.”
Sharapova would break to take the second set 6-3, and after breaking to take a 5-3 lead in the decider, she served the championship out on her third match point when Ivanovic netted a forehand.
Though Sharapova seems to have little concern about the No. 1 ranking, she does admit that she’s quite happy to find herself in much better position than she was for much of 2014 in terms of ranking.
“Middle of last year people were talking about how I was barely in the top 10 for I think four months,” she said. “With any match I could have lost, could have been out of the top 10. But I held my ground and I pulled through with grit and fight and managed to finish the year off No. 2. That's not something I talked about with my team or myself. It was just focusing on matches.”