(April 29, 2012) With the same skillful serving that helped her beat reigning U.S. Open champion Sam Stosur and reigning Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova in the same week, Maria Sharapova completed a personal sweep as she defeated reigning Australian Open champion Victoria Azarenka to claim her first title of the year at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart.
Having lost in the last two finals she played against Azarenka in Melbourne and Indian Wells, Sharapova appeared on a mission at the start of the match as she went after Azarenka's serve, winning 10 of the first 12 points to jump out to a 3-0 lead.
Azarenka finally held serve and had chances to break Sharapova, but the No. 2 seed hit back to back aces to close out that game for 4-1 and later hit another ace out wide to finish off the set 6-1.
With both women focused on defeating the other, even an accidental bumping of their shoulders between sets only heightened the already contentious air of the match. Azarenka took a medical time out to have her right wrist taped and after she hit two double faults in a row during her opening service game of the second set, Azarenka exchanged words with someone in the crowd.
If the moment was getting to the World No. 1, she soon calmed down and eventually began going for her shots with more conviction. Azarenka held serve and soon earned a break point in the next game that Sharapova saved before going on to hold for 1-all. Later on in the set, Azarenka fought off four break points against her to hold for 3-2 but a netted backhand from Azarenka at 3-all gave Sharapova the vital break of serve to go up 4-3.
Sharapova's serving again was superb as she held at love to go up 5-3. Azarenka managed to hold serve herself to force Sharapova to serve for the match, but it was a mere formality as more effortless serving from the Russian saw her go up 40-0. A final serve from Sharapova’s racquet that Azarenka couldn't handle sealed the 6-1, 6-4 victory and with it the first title of the year for Sharapova and the 25th in her career.
The final stats tell the story as Sharapova hit 31 winners, only 13 unforced errors, served eight aces and was never broken in the match. Azarenka's most telling stat was that she only won 22% of points on her second serve.
The doubles finals was won by the Czech team of Iveta Benesova and Barbara Zahlavova Strycova over the all German pairing of Julia Goerges and Anna-Lena Groenefeld 6-4, 7-5.