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Denmark's Caroline Wozniacki proved that she is the player of the hour on the women's tennis tour, easily winning the finals of the Rogers Cup presented by National Bank Monday afternoon at the Uniprix Stadium in Montreal.
No.2 on the Sony Ericsson WTA rankings and future top seed at the US Open next week, the 20-year-old Dane completely dominated 25-year-old Russian Vera Zvonareva 6-3, 6-2 to capture her ninth career title and third of the year. The one-sided match lasted just 74 minutes.
It was the fourth duel between the two players, both holding two wins. But in light of her performance in the Rogers Cup final, it appears that Wozniacki's game is only on the rise, with huge achievements ahead of her.
Slightly rusty thanks to the two days of rain delays, the players started the match modestly. Wozniacki immediately lost her serve and Zvonareva followed suit.
But then the Russian had all sorts of difficulties in two fundamental elements of her game: her serve and her movement. Moving slowly and unable to reach Wozniacki's tough angles, Zvonareva was broken again in the fourth game.
She almost returned the complement to Wozniacki in the ninth game, with the Dane serving at 0-40. But Zvonareva was the victim of two powerful serves by her rival, and then she committed two unforced errors to lose the game.
After 35 minutes of uneven battle, the Russian lost the first set, during which she only put 33% of her first serves into play.
The second set didn't allow Zvonareva to step up her level of play. Still unable to move with ease, she was broken in the fourth game to allow Wozniacki to take a 3-1 lead. Two games later, she was broken again for the second time in the set.
An accumulation of forced and unforced errors led to the demise of the eighth seed.
The chain of events showed the difference between the No.2 player in the world - in complete control of her game and the promise of things to come - and the No.11 player in the world - less alert and tired after a long career.
Wozniacki succeeds Elena Dementieva, winner in Toronto last year and Dinara Safina, crowned in Montreal in 2008, as Rogers Cup champion.
She leaves with a $350,000 cheque, while Zvonareva's consolation prize is $175,000.
Wozniacki and Zvonareva reach final
Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark, ranked second in the world, reached the finals of the Rogers Cup presented by National Bank at Montreal's Uniprix Stadium Monday morning.
After a two-day rain delay, action resumed Monday at 10:00am.
Wozniacki needed just one hour and 12 minutes to advance to the final match, completely dominating Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova, No.16 in the world, with a 6-2, 6-3 win.
The Dane broke Kuznetsova's serve three times, placing her baseline shots and her serves absolutely perfectly. She won 62% of the points off her second serve, a significant stat given the circumstances.
The Russian committed 32 unforced errors compared to just 14 for the winner. It was the fifth battle between the two players and the third win for Wozniacki.
At 1:30pm, Wozniacki will battle Russia's Vera Zvonareva - who defeated Belarusian Victoria Azarenka 7-6(6), 1-0 - for the Rogers Cup trophy.
Suffering from an extremely painful blister on her right foot, Azarenka was forced to retire, finding it difficult to move around on the court.
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