Sharapova and Clijsters Set Up a Final Meeting

Maria Sharapova’s serve makes a “pop” as it hits the cement and the pop is usually followed by a seat-shaking grunt. Sharapova’s dangling earrings dance in contrast to her focused scowl when she whacks a cross-court forehand winner.

Kim Clijsters is demure. Her curly hair is pulled into a tight knot. When Clijsters powers up her ground strokes she doesn’t even breathe loudly. There is no grunt. Her jewelry is limited to an engagement ring and when she hits a winner, a drop shot struck from deep behind the baseline, there is no demonstration of joy or intimidation. Clijsters just touches the brim of her visor and moves on.

Top-seeded Clijsters, a 23-year-old Belgian, will play second-seeded Sharapova, a 19-year-old Russian who lists residences in Florida and Los Angeles with no mention of Moscow, in today’s Acura Classic final at La Costa Resort and Spa.

Clijsters, the defending U.S. Open champion, won her semifinal match Saturday night, 6-2, 7-6 (0), over 17-year-old Nicole Vaidisova of the Czech Republic. Earlier in the day Sharapova had overpowered fifth-seeded Patty Schnyder of Switzerland, 7-5, 6-4. Both winners stayed in control from start to finish by using big serves and having steady nerves. Both losers caused brief moments of concern.

After she was down 3-0 and seemed on the way to a quick and decisive defeat, seventh-seeded Vaidisova, who was a French Open semifinalist last June, won 11 straight points. “I hate going down easy,” Vaidisova said. “So I tried to change things up and see if it worked.”

It did. Vaidisova earned back the two service breaks she had given up and began moving Clijsters around the baseline by changing the pace of her balls and her tactics. Vaidisova even mixed in a volley or two.

“I should have tried that more in the first set,” Vaidisova said. “I played some stupid points.”

When the tiebreak arrived, though, Vaidisova started off by double faulting. “I set a bad tone,” she said.

Clijsters said she thought Vaidisova had started playing better midway through the second set and that maybe the inexperienced teenager let the occasion of a semifinal match against a top-ranked player get to her. “In the tiebreak you have to make your opponent win it,” Clijsters said. “Every point is important because in a tiebreak anything can happen.”

Sharapova has never beaten Clijsters. The last time they played was in the 2005 U.S. Open semifinals, and Clijsters won 6-2, 6-7 (4), 6-3. Clijsters said she had to gather her physical reserves and regain her focus to win the final set of that match. “I was proud that day,” she said.

Clijsters also noted that she has been watching Sharapova play this week.

“She is very focused again,” Clijsters said. “In a few of the other tournaments I saw her play, what was missing and what I liked so much about her when she first got out here, I liked that focus.”

In the day’s first match, Sharapova and Schnyder, 27, treasured their service points until the 11th game of the opening set. On the one and only break point of that set, Sharapova cracked a running forehand winner to go ahead 6-5 and then held serve at 30 in the next game by pushing Schnyder around with two big forehands.

After breaking Schnyder’s serve in the opening game of the second set, Sharapova saved five break points in a game that lasted 15 minutes and had nine deuces.

“I was consistently smart with my serve,” Sharapova said. “I mixed it up good and that was really important.”

Sharapova remembers “being exhausted” against Clijsters at last year’s U.S. Open.

“She gets a lot of balls back,” Sharapova said. “But she doesn’t just get them back. Her ball has a lot of juice on it. So I’ll just have to go out and see.”