Sharapova wins first Australian Open title

Maria Sharapova of Russia overcame the disappointment of last year to claim her third grand slam tournament victory on day 13 at the Australian Open.

The glamour player defeated number three seed Ana Ivanovic from Serbia 7-5 6-3 to avenge her extremely disappointing performance against Serena Williams in last year’s final.

Sharapova was happy to make amends for last year and come through to win the title.

“This is just incredible, if someone had told me in the middle of last year that I’d be standing on this stage in front of all you guys with the big one, I’d probably say forget it,” she told AFP.

She dedicated the win to the mother of her coach, Michael Noyce and described last year as “pretty difficult”.

“Last year was a pretty difficult year (for) me,”

“After that loss that we suffered I just gained a whole new perspective on life and my injuries and how to treat life with respect.”

The world number five has now won three grand slam titles, adding the Australian Open to US Open (2006) and Wimbledon (2004) in what has been a glittering career so far.

Number eight seeds Jonathan Elrich and Andy Ram of Israel defeated seventh seeds in Frenchmen Arnaud Clement/ Michael Llodra 7-5 7-6 (4) to claim the men’s doubles title.

Bernard Tomic and Jessica Moore both progressed through to the junior Australian Open finals, but only Tomic was able to taste success.

Tomic came up against the tenth seed Tsung- Hua Yang of Taipei and came back to capture the boy’s title after losing the first set 4-6 7-6(5) 6-0.

He thought that he wasn’t going to win after dropping the first set.

“I didn’t expect myself to win, the way he was playing in the first set,” he told AAP.

“The second set, I was down a break, he was just playing unbelievable tennis, he was serving like a top 15 player in the world.”

Moore lost the girls final in straight sets to 14th seed Arantxa Rus of the Netherlands in 6-3 6-4.

She was happy with her Australian Open campaign and believed that she can be consistent in the future.

“It gives me a lot of belief that I’m able to consistently play well.”

“Winning last week in the main draw gave me a huge confidence boost.”

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