ROTTERDAM (Netherlands), Feb 25: France’s Michael Llodra beat Sweden’s Robin Soderling 6-7, 6-3, 7-6 to win the World Indoor Tournament on Sunday and take his second title of the year.The 27-year-old, ranked 58th in the world, dropped his first set of the week but fought back to break Soderling twice in the second.

Both players dominated on their own service in the final set but Llodra’s serve and volley game earned him victory in the tiebreak.

For Llodra the victory in Rotterdam, after winning in Adelaide in January, was further proof that the doubles specialist’s decision last year to develop his singles game was paying off.

Soderling, ranked 59th in the world, was happy with his performance in only his second tournament since he came back from a left wrist injury that had sidelined him for months. He reached the quarter-finals in Marseille last week.

SHARAPOVA WINS

DOHA: Maria Sharapova claimed her second title of the year and the 18th of her career when she defeated unseeded Vera Zvonareva 6-1, 2-6, 6-0 in an all-Russian final at the Qatar Open on Sunday.

The Australian Open champion, who extended her unbeaten run this year to 14 matches, lost to Zvonareva in their last meeting at Indian Wells 11 months ago and after dominating the opening set once again found herself in trouble against her former top ten opponent.

Playing in a packed 5,000-seat stadium, fourth seed Sharapova made a dreadful start, dropping the opening game to love.

But she repaired the situation immediately, levelling at 1-1 and then overwhelming her opponent with her deep groundstrokes and powerful forehand.

Moving with increasing fluency, her aggressive play forced a number of errors from Zvonareva and allowed her to break twice more for the set, and it appeared as if she would continue on to an easy victory.

But the second set saw a complete reversal.

A double-fault gave Zvonareva a break for 2-0 after Sharapova had led the game 40-0, and her aggressive groundstrokes forced the struggling favourite into a succession of errors.

Making just three unforced errors, Zvonareva dominated the set and broke again to level the match on her fifth set point.

The pendulum swung again in the final set, as a determined Sharapova raised her level once more, taking control from the first game and surrendering just eight points in the remainder of the match.

RODDICK TRIUMPHS

SAN JOSE (California): Top seed Andy Roddick won his first title of the year by beating Radek Stepanek 6-4, 7-5 in the final of the San Jose Open on Sunday.

Roddick used his huge serve, had a consistent game from the baseline and returned proficiently to win his first ATP Tour title since last August in Washington DC.

Stepanek tried to confuse Roddick by mixing his serve and volley game with sharply angled ground strokes, but the Czech was never able to hit through the court or combat Roddick’s serve.

Roddick broke Stepanek in the opening game of the match when the Czech missed a forehand volley and he was able to sit on the lead to take the first set.

Stepanek served better in the second set and was able to fight off break points in the third game, but was unable to return enough of Roddick’s serves to seriously challenge the former world number one and he began to fade.

He was broken to 6-5 when Roddick ripped a forehand passing shot down the line before the 25-year-old American, who did not face a break point, won the contest on his third match point when he smashed a 206kph (129mph) ace.

The title was Roddick’s third in San Jose and 24th overall.

—Reuters