Victoria Azarenka Captures 2010 Bank of the West Classic Singles Title
Azarenka becomes the fifth different singles champion in the last five years.
STANFORD, Calif. (www.BankOfTheWestClassic.com) – Eighth-seeded wildcard Victoria Azarenka registered a convincing 6-4, 6-1 win over fifth-seeded Maria Sharapova on Sunday afternoon to capture the singles title at the 2010 Bank of the West Classic.
Azarenka claimed her fourth career singles title- all on hard court- while becoming the fifth different Bank of the West Classic singles champion in the last five years. With the win, she improves to 4-6 in 10 career finals. Azarenka, who celebrated her 21st birthday yesterday, is projected to rise to No. 12 in the Monday’s new Sony Ericsson WTA Tour singles rankings after winning the title.
While few expected the lesser-known Azarenka to defeat crowd favorite Sharapova, the results this week indicated otherwise. During her five-match tournament run, Azarenka dropped just one set overall (losing the first in a three-set win over defending champion and fourth-seeded Marion Bartoli) while surrendering five games or less combined in four of her five matches.
Sharapova was bidding to become the first player in 2010 to win three singles titles, having already claimed the hardware at Memphis and Strasbourg. Making her second straight appearance in the Bank of the West Classic, Sharapova had little trouble in her first two matches before patiently grinding out three-set victories over No. 2 Elena Dementieva in the quarterfinals and No. 3 Agnieszka Radwanska in the semifinals.
Tied at 2-2 in the first set, Azarenka managed a service break to move in front 3-2. However, Sharapova picked up the next two games to take a 4-3 lead. That’s when Azarenka stepped on the gas, rattling off the next three games to close out the set at 6-4.
The second set was not as competitive, with Azarenka requiring just 28 minutes to secure the tournament championship. Sharapova salvaged a game early on to get within 2-1, but Azarenka strung together four quick games in a row en route to closing out the match.
Both players posted solid first serve percentages, with Azarenka connecting at 74 percent and Sharapova converting at 73 percent. But Azarenka held a commanding second serve percentage (53 percent compared to 20 percent) while Sharapova was victimized by 27 unforced errors.
ABOUT THE BANK OF THE WEST CLASSIC: The Bank of the West Classic is the longest-running women-only professional tennis tournament in the world and is the first stop of the Olympus US Open Series. A Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Premier event, the Bank of the West Classic features a 30-player singles draw and a 16-team doubles draw with total prize money of $700,000. Held on Stanford University's campus at the Taube Family Tennis Stadium since 1997, former champions include: Billie Jean King, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, Andrea Jaeger, Monica Seles, Martina Hingis, Lindsay Davenport and Venus Williams. The Bank of the West Classic is owned and operated by IMG.
ABOUT BANK OF THE WEST: Based in San Francisco, $61 billion-asset Bank of the West (www.bankofthewest.com) offers a full range of business, corporate, personal, trust and international banking services. For the third year in a row, Bank of the West has been ranked "highest in customer satisfaction in retail banking" in California by J.D. Power and Associates. The Bank operates more than 700 branch locations and commercial banking offices in 19 Western and Midwestern states. Bank of the West's holding company, BancWest Corporation, is a subsidiary of BNP Paribas, among the six strongest banks in the world, according to Standard & Poor's.
