World No.3 Vera Zvonareva won her first title in over a year (the period in which she lost five finals!), after defeating top-ranked Caroline Wozniacki in the final of the 2011 Qatar Ladies Open. They both played great tennis, but it was Zvonareva who always had a slight edge, which was increasingly frustrating Wozniacki, a bit of a favorite who had lost just 9 games en route to the championship match.
Even though the match could have easily gone either way, the first big moment approaching victory to Zvonareva’s side was when Wozniacki had three successive chances to break the Russian and even the score to 4-4. The Dane wasted them all and Zvonareva capitalized on her 5-3 lead to soon take the first set.
In the second set there was a crucial fifth game, on Wozniacki’s serve, at 2-2. There were eight deuces and well over 10 minutes of play, and Zvonareva came out as the winner of that one. More tense games followed and until the end the winner was not apparent, but Zvonareva maintained her high level of tennis and kept her nerve – even when she had to let go of an apparent match point, because she didn’t have a challenge to challenge a wrong call from a line judge.
Final score: 6-4 6-4. As for the money finalists took home: Zvonareva’s share is $111,000, while Wozniacki’s is almost twice less, $60,000.
Wozniacki will remain No.1, but this defeat will surely stay in her head. On the other hand, congrats to Zvonareva for wonderful performance and result in Doha. It was really nice to see her jumping, all smiles.
I have to use this opportunity of congratulating people to do a rather awkward thing – congratulate myself. 🙂 Women’s Tennis Blog was visited by 35,326 people yesterday!
And last but not least, I’d like to give a special thanks to Johan Rivera, a professional photographer based in Qatar, who was sending me loads of fresh and awesome pics from the tournament!
I’m delighted for Zvonareva, it’s been a while since she won a big title, so she deserves it. Well done to Wozniacki aswell, over the past two weeks she has played extremely well and really is playing like the world number one.
Can I also say congratulations to JJ, it’s been great watching her these past two weeks and reminding us that she can still play great tennis, even if she did come up short.
And of course congratulations Marija. Reaching that amount of visitors in such a short space of time is a fantastic achievement! You deserve it 🙂
Congratulations… to Marija!!!
Can someone explain to me the following:
Dubai Men side (this week):
Winner: $386,000
Finalist: $181,500
Semi-Finalist: $85,000
Quarter-Finalist: $40,525
Dubai Women side (this week):
Winner: $360,000 => 93% of men
Finalist: $180,000 => 99% of men
Semi-Finalist: $90,000 => 106% of men
Quarter-Finalist: $41,450 => 102% of men
To be fully accurate, women have one more round than men in Dubai.
In other words, if you are a women in Dubai, the more you win, the less you earn compared to men!!!
OHH i’m wrong you’ve been talked about dubai.. i don’t have any idea for caroline’s check on that..but i’m sure that novak deserves more money than wozniacki and wta players in EVERYWHERE
There was a typo in my initial post. the “Dubai Women side” was last week obviously.
@Brenda: Not only you are wrong that men’s game is “more funny and interesting” – we could argue indefinitely about that – but your maths are wrong.
In Dubai, Wozniacki played 83 games, so she was “paid” $4337 per game. Djokovic played 109 games, so he was “paid” $3541 per game. I’m pretty happy to see that “my” Caro has a better yield than “your” Nole. Sorry! 😉
what does twice less mean? do you mean almost half?
friend of serbia! our player gisela dulko won a wta tittlle today in acapulco 🙂
and Gregoire Gentil it’s easy to understand why men win more money than women..not only because their game it’s more funny and interesting.. also because men’s tennis it’s more watched around the world that women’s..as we say in argentina..it sell more!! the people buy more tickets to see men that women.. SIMPLE..but i’m sure that i saw vera’s award .. i send you the link [link expired] ..and the price that i saw in that check it’s not the same as you said..
kissess!!!
CAROLINE IS BETTER THAN VERA
Bróna, well-summed up success of Vera, Caroline and Jelena, I think just the same. And thanks for congratulating me.
Gregoire, hahaha that’s a good one! 🙂
About the money, my knowledge of maths has long expired 😛 but I’d say you’re still highly motivated to progress in the tournament – for every round you double the money, and to double $90,000 is pretty exciting, not to mention from $180,000 to $360,000. Also, when you put it this way, it’s better on the women’s side – if you lose, you win more than a man (on smaller amounts the surplus is more evident and valuable), but if you win, you win a bit less (when you win $180,000, additional $1500 is just pocket money). If you understand what I tried to say. However, all those amounts sound great to me. 🙂
Brenda, I’ll write about Dulko’s win later today, now I’m going out to slide on snow 😀 It’s an ever-present story about women’s tennis vs men’s tennis. Maybe we should all shift to mixed doubles. 🙂
Blah, yes, almost half would have the same meaning.
Congrats to Vera, she really fought hard to get this title.:D
Vera has done a good job,but the conditions helped her a little. I hope that this year the rivalry between her, Wozniacki and Clijsters will produce some interesting tennis.