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KEY BISCAYNE, Fla. – Shrieking with every shot, Victoria Azarenka won the Sony Ericsson Open for the ordinal instance by fighting Maria Sharapova, 6-1, 6-4.

The No. 8-seeded Azarenka was the steadier contestant Saturday and swept figure serial games to verify charge. Sharapova committed 43 voluntary errors, held help exclusive once and came up brief with a New comeback bid.

"I played actual substantially the first set," Azarenka said. "Maria is much a great fighter, I knew she was feat to fight to the end. She came up with great sport at the end, and I had to secure in there. That's what paying off."

Azarenka also won at attorney Biscayne in 2009, stopping Serena Williams in the final. The digit titles are the biggest of the Belarussian's career.

Sharapova, whose most recent title came at city in May 2010, has lost her past four finals. She fell to 0-3 in finals at attorney Biscayne, where she was also the runner-up in 2005 and 2006.

No. 1-ranked Rafael Nadal module endeavor for the men's title Sun against No. 2 Novak Djokovic, who is 23-0 this year.

The women's test matching digit of the most disreputable grunters in tennis. Beforehand, Azarenka advisable fans dress earplugs, and the digit players traded screeches on every rally, art giggles from the gathering at one point.

However, Azarenka was sharp, while Sharapova was flat. Sharapova poor help to accomplish 1-all, but it was an distance before she won another mettlesome to make it 4-1 in the ordinal set.

"It's a lowercase bit likewise New to garner up the measure when you're downbound a ordered and 4-love," Sharapova said. "I wish I picked it up earlier, obviously. She did some things better than I did today."

Sharapova failed to modify 11 mettlesome points on her help before retentive for the exclusive instance to dawdle 4-2, then began to stabilize her strokes. Pounding winners, she overcame digit match points to break for 5-4.

"I didn't feel like I was doing anything wrong," Azarenka said. "She was just activity rattling good, so I just had to secure in there."

But Sharapova was likewise erratic to sustain her feat or the rallies. When she dumped a forehanded into the gain on the test point, Azarenka dropped her endeavor in uncertainty and celebrated by moving and dancing crossways the court.

Serena and Urania Williams, who between them hit won octad nowadays at attorney Biscayne, uncomprehensible the tournament for upbeat reasons. But Azarenka still had a thickened line to the final, fighting No. 2 Kim Clijsters and No. 3 Vera Zvonareva in straight sets.

Azarenka is sticking to be hierarchical No. 6 incoming week, matching a career-best.

Sharapova, healthy again after battling a series of injuries, is sticking to climb to No. 9. That's the maximal she has been hierarchical since primeval 2009.

"It effectuation that I'm success matches, and success more of them," she said. "It has been a long agency to intend here. It's not over yet."

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