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Journalism of Courage
Crowd favourite Maria Sharapova captured her first title since her injury lay-off by beating Jelena Jankovic to win the Pan Pacific Open tennis tournament.
The 22-year-old Russian,who returned to action in May after a right shoulder injury,won the battle between the former world number ones to regain the title she won in 2005,when the Serbian seventh seed retired with an arm injury at 5-2.
“It was very tough because Jelena started off so strong.
It was my second final of the year,so I was a little bit nervous,” said Sharapova.
“I wanted to perform really well. I feel like I played good enough tennis to give her a go today and I just wanted to keep fighting out there.”
Sharapova found herself 0-40 down in the opening game,which she lost two points later,hitting a backhanded drop shot wide.
She then went 0-2 down before moving into top gear,hitting an array of power-packed strokes and aggressive service returns to take the following four games in a row.
Jankovic,who needed court-side treatment to her right arm in the semi-finals on Friday,took a medical time-out for the same injury at the beginning of the eighth game.
But Jankovic abandoned the match when she went down love-30.
