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Venus beats Sharapova in exhibition match
Venus Williams rallied from a 2-0 deficit in the second set to defeat World No 1 Maria Sharapova in a warm-up exhibition match today.
- Indo-Asian News Service
- Updated: February 25, 2007 09:48 AM IST
Read Time:2 min
Seoul:
Venus Williams rallied from a 2-0 deficit in the second set to defeat World No 1 Maria Sharapova in a warm-up exhibition match today ahead of the China Open. The decisive straight set 6-4 6-4 victory at Seoul's Olympic Gymnasium brought three-time Wimbledon champion Williams and the Russian teenager even at two matches apiece in head-to-head encounters. A drop shot at the net gave Williams the fifth game of the second set before she broke Sharapova's serve in game six after forcing her into a number of errors. Crowd favourite Crowd favourite Williams, who holds 33 WTA titles, brought her experience to bear over the 18-year old Russian, a 10-time winner who also lost to the American in the Wimbledon semifinal in July. "My serve was really good, you know, I mixed it up, big serve, spin serve, tricky serve," Williams said. "The surface was very fast, so it was more like who could hit the best shot first." "I don't think I served that well," Sharapova said when asked about playing on the hard indoor surface. After the match, Williams and Sharapova donated their respective prize money of US$20,000 and US$10,000 to Korean charities. The two fly to Beijing on Tuesday for the China Open. Sharapova won't be returning to Seoul later this year for the Korea Open to defend her title because new WTA rules prohibit the world's top six players from entering lower tier events to avoid potential scheduling clashes. (AP)Topics mentioned in this article
Tennis Maria Sharapova
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