Playing in a packed 5,000-seat stadium Sharapova made a dreadful start, dropping the opening game to love.  But she repaired the situation, 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. \

Llorda triumphs

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.