Mon 27 October 2008
Ana was understandably delighted after a near flawless display of controlled power tennis earned her a 6-2, 6-1 win over world No.9 Vera Zvonareva, and with it the Generali Ladies Linz title.
"Every final is a new experience and winning a title is always special," she said. "Especially after coming back from an injury, and putting in a lot of hard work; it is great to see the results. It's a very good feeling to win another title and I am very happy about it.
"I've played better and better with every match and I just enjoyed it again, to compete and win. I've had a couple of good matches here: Pennetta in the quarter-finals was a really good match, and yesterday against Radwanska was very emotional and tough, with lots of ups and downs. But both matches gave me a lot of confidence. Today I played almost a perfect match."
"The score might look like the match was easier than it actually was. We were still fighting for every point and in the first set there was one situation where the match could have gone either way. It makes a big difference if it is 3-2 or 4-1."
Zvonareva lamented her poor performance. "Of course I am really disappointed with how I played today," she said. "She played well and I was just not in the match today."
Ana also enjoyed her time in Austria off the court. "I enjoyed my week in Linz," she said. "When I had a day off earlier this week I went for a walk in the city, went to the cinema and had a nice dinner by the river."
Having well and truly put her injury troubles behind her, Ana is now well placed to make an assault on the Sony Ericsson Championships in Qatar, which begins a week on Tuesday. "I'm going to Doha hungry to win more matches," said Ana.
"But the top eight players will be there and they all want to win the Championships, so it will be tough. But I'm looking forward to Doha. I will also celebrate my birthday there, and I will just go there to enjoy competing."