AP News, February 19th, 2007
Yaraslova Shvedova of Russia won her first WTA Tour title by stunning top-seeded defending champion Mara Santangelo of Italy 6-4, 6-4 at the Sony Ericsson International on Sunday.
Shvedova, ranked 143rd in the world, again showed the outstanding form she displayed all week to overcome the 36th-ranked Santangelo.
"It's been a wonderful week, winning one's first title surely is a very special moment," said an excited Shvedova.
"Playing my first final, I took one game at a time and tried to keep things simple," said Shvedova, who had the spectators rooting for her in this southern Indian city.
Santangelo committed too many unforced errors.
"I played well to reach the final, but she played better than me today," Santangelo said.
Shvedova broke Santangelo's serve in the third game of the opening set, but dropped her own service point in the next game.
The error-prone Santangelo was broken again in the seventh game and could not recover.
Serving for the set in the 10th game, Shvedova survived a break point at 30-40 with a deep backhand that Santangelo couldn't get to. Shvedova won the first set when her Italian rival hit a backhand long.
Shvedova again broke Santangelo in the first game of the next set, and held on for the win.
The doubles title was won by top-seeded Chan Yung-jan and Chung Chia-jung of Taiwan. They rallied after dropping the first set to prevail 6-7 (4), 6-2, 10-9 against the fourth-seeded Hsieh Su-wei of Taiwan and Alla Kudryavtseva of Russia.
