Maria Sharapova secures first WTA title in over two years with Tianjin Open victory
MARIA SHARAPOVA secured her first WTA title in more than two years with victory at the Tianjin Open as she came from behind to beat Belarusian teenager Aryna Sabalenka 7-5 7-6 (10-8).
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The former world number one, who returned to the tour in April following a 15-month doping ban, started the stronger, breaking Sabalenka in her opening service game, but struggled on serve and soon found herself trailing 4-1 in the first set.
At 4-2 the Russian managed to hold serve for the first time before taking the score to 4-3 on her fourth break point to get back on serve.
Her nerves settled, Sharapova began to hit her stride, breaking Sabalenka again to go 6-5 up before closing out the set.
Maria Sharapova lifts the trophy following her victory at the Tianjin Open
Sabalenka came back in the second set opening up a 5-1 lead before serving to send the match into a decider, but Sharapova once again fought back to erase the deficit.
The 30-year-old broke Sabalenka twice in succession and held her nerve when facing a set point on serve at 5-4 to level things up, and broke the Belarusian to give herself the chance to serve out the match at 6-5.
But there was more drama to come. The Russian, who sent down seven aces during the contest, double faulted when facing a break point to gift Sabalenka the game and send the set into a tiebreak.
Aryna Sabalenka suffered a straight sets defeat to Maria Sharapova
Sharapova, whose last title came at the Italian Open in May 2015, had three match points but Sabalenka survived them all before double faulting with the score at 8-8 to hand Sharapova another opportunity.
This time, the Russian made no mistake, firing down a powerful serve to seal the victory.