Sunday Report

By Barry Wood

A large and vociferous crowd saw top seed Vera Zvonareva of Russia take the 2009 PTT Pattaya Open crown at the 3rd attempt. She recorded a straight sets win over India’s Sania Mirza 7-5 6-1 to win her maiden title of the year and continue the superb form she has been in since last autumn. The opening set was evenly fought with Zvonareva gaining a break to lead 5-3, but Mirza broke back immediately only to be broken again to lose the set. In the 2nd set Zvonareva upped her game a gear with some powerful serving and cruised through to win 6 – 1. During the match which lasted one hour and 17 minutes Mirza despite the loss showed signs that she is recapturing the form which took her into the top 40 a couple of years ago.

It was a great day for Thailand in the doubles with local star Tamarine Tanasugarn and partner Yaroslava Shvedova winning in fine style 6-3, 6-2 against Vitalia Diatchenko and Yuliya Beygelzimer in a little over one hour. Tamarine and Yaroslava dominated the match with their strong serving and all court game.

For Tamarine it was third time lucky on home soil after reaching the singles final here in 1996 and in Bangkok in 2006. For her partner it was her maiden win on the tour.