LINZ, Austria — Top-ranked Victoria Azarenka won her sixth WTA title of the season Sunday by beating Julia Goerges 6-3, 6-4 at the Generali Ladies.
Azarenka beats Goerges to win
Generali Ladies
LINZ, Austria — Top-ranked Victoria Azarenka won her sixth WTA title of the season Sunday by beating Julia Goerges 6-3, 6-4 at the Generali Ladies.
Azarenka broke the fifth-seeded Goerges in the opening game and again at 5-3 to take the first set. That still made Goerges the first opponent to win more than two games in one set against the Belarusian at this tournament.
“I felt very good, very energized each day of this week,” Azarenka said.
Azarenka’s next tournament is the season-ending WTA Championships in Istanbul.
Djokovic rallies
to beat Murray
in Shanghai final
SHANGHAI — Novak Djokovic saved five match points in the second set before outlasting two-time defending champion Andy Murray 5-7, 7-6 (11), 6-3 on Sunday in the Shanghai Masters final.
In another entertaining matchup between the two U.S. Open finalists, Djokovic seemed headed for defeat when Murray was serving for the match at 5-4 in the second set.
But the second-ranked Serb saved one match point in that game before breaking back for 5-5. He then saved four more in a tense tiebreaker and carried his momentum into the deciding set, breaking the Briton twice to earn his fifth title of the year.
Watson wins
Japan Open, ends
Brits’ title drought
OSAKA, Japan — Heather Watson became the first British woman in 24 years to win a WTA title by beating Chang Kai-chen of Taiwan on Sunday in the final of the Japan Open.
Watson outlasted Chang 7-5, 5-7, 7-6 (4) in 3 hours, 11 minutes to end the long drought for her country — just three weeks after Laura Robson became the first British woman in 22 years to even reach a WTA final.
By wire sources