Seizing Union State Supremacy

Azarenka captured her first major title win
Saturday with many more on the horizon.

Victoria Azarenka and Maria Sharapova may come from the same culture, but on the court they looked like much different players.

In her first ever Grand Slam final appearance, Azarenka, looked like the more experienced player, routing Sharapova, 6-3, 6-0, seizing her first Australian Open title and the No. 1 world ranking. To start the match, Azarenka dropped her first service game before righting the ship and winning 12 of the matches' last 13 games.

Sharapova, who is clearly the more polished player with three Grand Slam titles, is only the ninth woman in Australian Open history to win three or fewer games in the tournament's final.

Azarenka, 22, first turned pro at age 16, but it has taken her more than six years to capture her first Grand Slam title. As for Sharapova, she was just 17 when she won the 2004 Wimbledon tournament as the 13th seed, defeating the top seeded and defending champion Serena Williams.

En route to Azarenka's first major title, she had to over come the tournament's defending champion Kim Clijsters in semifinals. She is now 3-0 against Sharapova in tournament finals and starts the 2012 season with a 12-match winning streak.

Azarenka is a native of Belarus and Sharapova of Russia, both whom are forever linked not only for their unbelievable tennis play, but from where they spent most of their lives. Both countries formed and signed a treaty back in 1996, something we know now as the Union State.

So a rivalry that wrote another chapter Saturday in Melbourne, started long before they met on the court.