Great Tennis Photos: Vera Zvonareva clinches Indian Wells title

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Vera Zvonareva defeated Ana Ivanovic 7-6 (5), 6-2 overcoming gusty, swirling winds to win BNP Paribas Open title, the biggest title of her career.

Zvonareva added the crown to the doubles championship she won the previous day with Victoria Azarenka, whom she had beaten in the singles semifinal and joined Lindsay Davenport as the only women to win the singles and doubles title at Indian Wells in the same year. Davenport did it twice, in 1997 and 2000.

“It's amazing,” she said. “It's a great feeling to win such a big event, and I think I'm still a little bit into the match, into the crazy wind, and I'm still not realizing it. But definitely tomorrow I would look back, I would say, ‘Yeah, I did a great job.' ”

“I've been watching this tournament since I was a kid,” said Zvonareva. “It's been on TV back home so many years. It's basically one of the biggest events after the major. I think it means a lot to everyone who is able to win it, because you have to beat so many top players on the way to get the title.”

For Zvonareva,this was ninth career singles title and second of the year.

Zvonareva handled the conditions better. She made 23 unforced errors, half of Ivanovic's total. Ivanovic also had five double faults, Zvonareva one.

Those mistakes negated Ivanovic's winners — she hit 29 to Zvonareva's five.

“Honestly it was the toughest conditions I've ever played in,” said Ana. “It was very, very windy and it wasn't much about the game and game plan today. It was just who can handle the conditions better and who can stay mentally tougher through it.”

“It was constantly changing,” she said. “I made lots of the same mistakes. It was just very hard to judge where the ball wold bounce and where the ball will end up.”

It may have been the worst playing conditions in Indian Wells since 2003 when competition on the outside courts was temporarily shut down.

"Thanks to all of you for coming out today and staying with us in this crazy weather," Zvonareva told the crowd.

“Even though I had some mistakes and some frustrating points with the wind, I was still trying to put as many balls as I can in the court,” said Zvonareva. “It was very important today to try to concentrate, try to keep my serves, serve percentage as high as possible. I was fighting for every point no matter what. Even if I was down love-40 in the game I was playing for it. Maybe I was a little bit better at doing that today than Ana.”

(photo/Matthew Stockman/Getty Images, ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images)