Pacific Life Open
Indian Wells, CA, USA
$2,100,000 (Tier I)
Hard / Outdoors
March 12-23, 2008
Results - Sunday, March
23, 2008
Singles - Final
(1) Ana Ivanovic (SRB) d. (2) Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS) 64
63
Doubles - Final (played
Saturday)
Safina/Vesnina (RUS/RUS) d. (3) Yan/Zheng (CHN/CHN) 61 16
108 (Match TB)
Final Facts
- Ivanovic wins her first Sony Ericsson WTA Tour singles
title of the year, and the sixth of her career (this is also
her third Tier I singles title, after 2006 Montréal and 2007
Berlin); she is now 1-1 in Tour singles finals this year
(having finished runner-up at the Australian Open) and 6-3
in her career.
- Kuznetsova is now 0-3 in Tour singles finals this year
(having finished runner-up at Sydney and Dubai) and 9-15 in
her career; she has now lost eight of her last nine Tour
singles finals.
- This was the third time this year that the Top 2 seeds
have met in a Tour singles final, and the No.1 seed is now
3-0 in those (Henin d. Kuznetsova in Sydney, Pennetta d.
Cornet in Acapulco); No.1 seeds are now 7-0 in Tour singles
finals this year, while No.2 seeds are now 0-5.
- Safina and Vesnina had played only four matches together
coming into Indian Wells, going 2-2 in those; they went 5-0
to win the Tier I title this week however, beating four
seeded teams along the way (including No.3 seeds Yan and
Zheng in the final); Safina wins her eighth career Tour
doubles title while Vesnina wins her third.
Final Quotes
Ana Ivanovic, 2008
Pacific Life Open singles champion:
"It was such a strong field and I was still the No.1 seed;
obviously more pressure comes into play. The first few
matches I was more nervous but then I just started to focus
on each match and not even think about who I was playing
against. I've been practicing really well and working so
hard on my fitness, and that's something I tried to focus on
when I was on the court."
"It's a great victory for me. We always have tough matches.
I think we both played good tennis from first point on, and
I was really happy with that. We both kept level for most of
the match. When I managed to break her at 4-all in the first
set it gave me confidence, and I went strong from that point
on. I realized that's what I had to do. I'm happy I managed
to do that again later on."
Svetlana Kuznetsova, 2008
Pacific Life Open singles runner-up:
"In every final, there's also another player who plays; I
have had different and better chances. Justine and I played
an amazing final and I had chances against Elena too. Today
I didn't have that many chances. It's always painful to
lose, but I prefer losing in the final to losing in the
second round. I still played a pretty good tournament."