Maria Sharapova Wins Cincy Title

No meltdown for Maria Sharapova in this Cincinnati final. She put five sterling points together, and that was enough. Sharapova overcame a first-set letdown on Sunday, rallying to beat Jelena Jankovic 4-6, 7-6 (3), 6-3 for the championship of the Western & Southern Open. 

The fourth-seeded Russian survived a match full of service breaks – 16 in all, seven in the final set alone – for her second title of the season. Sharapova's best moments came in the tiebreaker, when she won the last five points to even the match. 

In the title match of the Western & Southern Open, Maria Sharapova will face the 2009 Cincinnti champion Jelena Jankovic, which will be their first meeting in two years and their fourth meeting in a WTA final. Sharapova started slow in the semifinal against Vera Zvonareva and lost the first set 6-2. 

But after dominating the beginning, Zvonareva's concentration dropped, some double faults creeped in and Sharapova's energy level raised. Sharapova won 2-6 6-3 6-3. As for Jankovic and her semifinal against Andrea Petkovic, after surviving the first set and winning it in a tiebreak, the Serb dominated the second set to advance with a 7-6(4) 6-1 victory. 

Jelena Jankovic, the 2009 champion in Cincinnati, had a somewhat easier time in her semifinal, beating No. 9 Andrea Petkovic 7-6(4), 6-1. Petkovic partially tore her meniscus in her quarterfinal match against Nadia Petrova, and worried that she had re-injured her ACL, an injury that had kept her out for eight months in 2008. 

But though her leg was thoroughly mummified with tape, Petkovic played and moved well, forcing Jankovic to play some of her best tennis to win the first set. Jankovic cruised in the second set, showing vintage form with the combination of defense and counter-punching shotmaking that took her to WTA No. 1 in 2008.