Maybe it was her lower back, maybe it was Venus Williams' greater firepower, but French girl Virginie Razzano would be a trifle disappointed with her performance in the final of the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships given her incredible run to the final.
At world No 58, you would expect Razzano to be happy at the fact that she reached the final of such a high-profile event, but when you consider that she has actually beaten Venus in the Tokyo Open final back in 2007, you'd understand that it wasn't meant to be such a straightforward conclusion.
In the end it was, despite Razzano's late resistance when she broke Venus while trailing 5-0 and staring at the prospect of a second-set whitewash. It was just prolonging the inevitable as she eventually folded 6-4 6-2.
Venus was quick to acknowledge Razzano's achievements over the week wherein she beat World No. 2 Dinara Safina, World No. 5 Vera Zvonareva and former top-5 player Daniela Hantuchova on way to the final. “She had a better week than I did, but I just got lucky in the final,'' Venus said with uncharacteristic modesty.
As for Razzano, her limited knowledge of English notwithstanding, she did manage to congratulate her opponent besides acknowledging her own achievement.
“Congratulations to Venus. She played great. But it was a very special week for me,'' she said.
The women's doubles was won for the third year in succession by the No. 1 duo of Liezel Huber and Cara Black. They defeated the scratch pairing of Maria Kirilenko and Agnieszka Radwanska 6-3 6-3 in just over an hour.
