Australian Open Capsules: Azarenka routs Sharapova to win women's title

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Victoria Azarenka started celebrating, then suddenly did a double-take to ask her coach, "What happened?"

The answer: She had just produced one of the most lopsided Australian Open final victories to capture a Grand Slam title and the No. 1 ranking for the first time.

Azarenka routed three-time Grand Slam winner Maria Sharapova 6-3, 6-0 in 1 hour, 22 minutes on Saturday night, winning 12 of the last 13 games after dropping her first service game and falling behind 2-0.

"It's a dream come true," she said. "I have been dreaming and working so hard to win the Grand Slam, and being No. 1 is pretty good bonus. Just the perfect ending and the perfect position to be in."

Azarenka had won 11 straight matches, including a run to the Sydney International title, and reached her first Grand Slam final. Her previous best performance at a major was a semifinal loss to Petra Kvitova at Wimbledon last year. Sharapova had all the experience, being in her sixth major final and having won three — dating to her 2004 Wimbledon title.

But it didn't unnerve the 22-year-old Azarenka, the first woman from Belarus to win a singles major. She's also the seventh different woman to win a Grand Slam since Francesca Schiavone won the 2010 French Open, and the fifth different winner in as many majors.

Azarenka became only the third woman to earn the No. 1 spot after winning her first major title. She moved from No. 3 to No. 1 in the rankings, helped by Caroline Wozniacki's loss in the quarterfinals.

The third-seeded Azarenka set up championship point with a stunning forehand, her 14th clean winner, and sealed it when Sharapova netted a backhand.

She dropped to her knees at the baseline with her hands over her face. She got up, held her hands up and jogged over to her coach, Sam Sumyk, in the stands to celebrate.

"The best feeling, for sure," Azarenka said. "I don't know about the game. I don't know what I was doing out there. It's just pure joy what happened. I can't believe it's over."

And she paid special credit to her grandmother, "the person who inspires me the most in my life."

Azarenka has been a distinctive presence at Melbourne Park as much for her shrieks and hoots with each shot and seemingly boundless energy as for her white shorts, blue singlet and lime green head and wrist bands.

Against Sharapova, she maintained the frenetic movement that has been the hallmark of her performance in Australia, her 25th consecutive major. She won the Sydney International title last weekend and is on a 12-match winning streak — the first player since 2004 to win a WTA tour event the week before winning a major.

"She did everything better than I did today. I had a good first couple of games, and that was about it," Sharapova said. "Then she was the one that was taking the first ball and hitting it deep and aggressive. I was always the one running around like a rabbit, you know, trying to play catch-up all the time."

Sharapova also won only three games in a 2007 final loss to Serena Williams, who also conceded only three games in the 2009 final against Dinara Safina.

When Sharapova won the first two games, there was no indication of how lopsided the match would be. Azarenka took control after holding for the first time, breaking Sharapova at love and then holding again on a three-game roll.

Sharapova held, finishing off with an ace, to level the score at 3-3 in the first set but then didn't win another game.

Azarenka started dictating the points, coming to the net at times, hitting winners from the baseline and forcing the 24-year-old Russian to the extremes on both sides of the court. Sharapova seemed barely able to move by comparison, and had 30 unforced errors in the match.

The second set was completely lopsided and lasted only 36 minutes, with Sharapova winning only 12 points.

"As in any sport, you have your good days, you have your tough days and you have days where things just don't work out," said Sharapova, who has now been on the losing end of two of the most lopsided scorelines in a final at Melbourne Park.

In the men's doubles final, Leander Paes and Radek Stepanek denied Bob and Mike Bryan their record 12th Grand Slam title, beating the American twins 7-6 (1), 6-2.

The 33-year-old Bryans were attempting to secure their place as the most decorated doubles team since the Open Era began in 1968. They remain tied at 11 major titles with Australian duo Mark Woodforde and Todd Woodbridge.

On Sunday, defending champion Novak Djokovic takes on Rafael Nadal in a men's singles final featuring the top two players in the rankings. Djokovic won three of the four majors last year and beat Nadal in six finals in 2011 among his 70 match wins for the season.

Azarenka had her best season in 2011, winning 55 of 72 matches to finish the year at No. 3.

There was a time when she'd momentarily flirted with the idea of quitting the sport during a quick trip home to Minsk after a loss at Doha. But she was quickly set straight by her family, including her grandmother, who had reportedly worked three jobs until the age of 71.

She couldn't get through to her family immediately "because my phone is freaking out right now," but she texted them from the court.

"I made a pretty smart decision, not walking out, right? That was pretty special," she said. "There's always ups and downs, now I'm up."

Azarenka No. 1, other rankings shift in WTA

Azarenka moved from No. 3 to No. 1, passing Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova, who will remain at No. 2 after her loss in the semifinals. The 22-year-old Belarusian is the 21st player to hold the No. 1 spot since computer rankings were introduced in 1975.

The WTA said Saturday that rankings which will take effect Monday show Sharapova moving up one spot to third and Caroline Wozniacki, who held the No. 1 ranking for nearly 67 weeks before losing in the quarterfinals to Kim Clijsters, dropping to fourth.

U.S. Open champion Sam Stosur, who lost in the first round, moves up one spot to fifth despite the poor result at her home major, while Agnieszka Radwanska is a career-high No. 6.

Marion Bartoli of France moves up two spots to a career-best seventh, while Vera Zvonareva is No. 8, French Open champion Li Na drops four spots to No. 9 and Andrea Petkovic, who withdrew from the Australian Open due to a stress fracture in her back, stays at No. 10.

Li dropped from fifth after she lost in the fourth round to defending champion Clijsters. The Chinese star had a high number of ranking points to defend as a finalist last year.

Clijsters, who lost in the semifinals to Azarenka this year, is projected to drop to about 30th from No. 11. Serena Williams, who lost in the fourth round, will remain at No. 12.

"I've been loving coming to Australia since I was a junior, and I've had an amazing month and this is a dream come true," Azarenka said

She had a 55-17 win-loss record in 2011, winning three titles and finishing runner-up in two others. She started 2012 strongly, defeating three top 10 players in a row en route to her ninth career singles title at the Sydney International. She remains undefeated in 2012 with a 12-0 record.

She is the third player to achieve the top ranking directly after claiming a first Grand Slam singles title: Martina Navratilova moved to No. 1 after winning Wimbledon in 1978 and Ana Ivanovic took top spot after winning the 2008 French Open.

-- Dennis Passa

Murray leaves Australia confident despite loss

Murray has been the beaten finalist the past two years at Melbourne Park, failing to win a set from either Roger Federer in 2010 or Novak Djokovic in 2011.

On Friday, with his new coach of four weeks, Ivan Lendl, watching from the stands, Murray lost in five tough sets in nearly five hours to Djokovic, nearly pulling off a stunning comeback after being 5-2 down in the deciding set.

Instead of being upset with his loss a round earlier than the previous two years, and yet another Grand Slam without a title, Murray was upbeat.

"Disappointed obviously, but sometimes you come off the court and you've played really badly, you haven't quite been there mentally, and then you're really disappointed with yourself 'cause you've let yourself down," Murray said. "I don't feel like I've let myself down."

Murray has been reluctant to give an early prognosis on his relationship with Lendl, who rejected up to 10 offers in the 18 months before accepting the 24-year-old Scot as his student. The eight-time major champion agreed in December to start coaching Murray, although the two didn't hook up until early January in Brisbane, Australia, where Murray won a tuneup tournament for the season's first major.

But Djokovic didn't mind giving his view of the new relationship shortly after he walked off the court in his 6-3, 3-6, 6-7 (4), 6-1, 7-5 win, putting him in Sunday's final against Rafael Nadal.

"He was more confident on the court," Djokovic said when asked if he noticed any different in Murray's game. "He was taking his chances. He was being more aggressive. I think he was playing better."

And he thinks that Lendl could even make Murray a better player.

"You can't significantly change in technique a stroke, especially if you're at this level," Djokovic said. "He's already a complete player. Even last year he was. It's a matter of having a little bit of luck combined with a choice of the right shots at the right moments, and that's it. He's so close to winning a Grand Slam."

Murray spoke after his loss about the immediate impact of having Lendl around him. The Czech player lost his first four Grand Slam finals, including the 1983 Australian Open, before winning his first, so Lendl can perhaps understand Murray's frustrations at having lost three of his major title chances so far, all without winning a set.

"I feel like, when you look up at someone like that in the stands it helps," Murray said. "Obviously for me, I want to try and repay the sort of faith that he's shown in me by coming to work with me. So I would have liked to have done obviously better here.

"Hopefully he was happy with the way I did and how I acted on the court. Hopefully at the French Open I'll do a little bit better."

In the meantime, there'll be some tough training sessions.

"I want to work on all parts of my game," he said. "I thought I played pretty well up at the net this tournament, which was good. Something I'll need to keep improving.

"I haven't sat down and spoken to Ivan about what I'm going to work on next two or three months in the buildup to Indian Wells and Miami yet, but I'm sure we'll have that conversation when the time is right."

-- Dennis Passa

Notebook: Townsend wins Australian Open girls event

MELBOURNE, Australia (AP) — Fifteen-year-old Taylor Townsend wasn't intimidated by playing the most important match of her young tennis career at 15,000-seat Rod Laver Arena on Saturday. In fact, she took a souvenir so she could remember the experience.