Sharapova reeled off five consecutive games to reach a 5-2 lead over current world #8 Jelena Jankovic, before Jankovic retired the match due to injury, to win the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo.

“We want to congratulate Maria on her title in Tokyo and all she has already accomplished during her comeback,” said Linda Glassel, VP of Marketing at Prince. “Getting over shoulder surgery is no small feat, for any athlete, and we are proud to continue to work and supply Maria with the most technically advanced product to not only help her get her back to #1 in the world, but raise her game to new heights.”

“It’s great to have that adrenaline again. It’s funny to win trophies again after thinking I might never be able to hit a tennis ball again,” said the three-time Grand Slam champion, Sharapova. “But I’m back and I’m hungry. I can be better than before and win more Grand Slams.”

The win marks Sharapova’s 20th career title and first since Amelia Island in April of 2008. It was Sharapova’s second final in her last three tournament appearances.

Sharapova is one of more than 20 ATP and WTA touring pros currently using the Prince O3 Speedport Black. Prince’s performance racquet line features racquets with the Company’s ground-breaking O-technology – easily identifiable by the large, visible ports along the racquet frame.
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Awaiting him in the final was another of his past nemeses, Lleyton Hewitt, the 2001 US Open champion. The Australian skipped the Olympic Games, but won the two ATP tournaments played concurrently to the Olympics in Washington, D.C. and in Long Island. Entering his match with Federer, he won his last 16 matches and did not surrender a set in his six-match run to the final.

It only took 17 minutes for Federer to hand Hewitt his first lost set of the tournament, losing only five points in a near perfect execution of tennis. When Hewitt won his first game of the match after Federer led 6-0, 2-0, the crowd at Arthur Ashe Stadium gave him a standing ovation. Federer contin­ued to be the much stronger player, until a lapse of concentration and a run of errors and missed serves allowed Hewitt to win four straight games after trailing 2-5 in the second set.

“If he had managed to win the second set, it would have turned out to be an entirely different match,” Federer said. “I forced myself to keep positive. I said to myself that I only got this break because I was playing against the wind and I was serving with old balls. When I changed sides, everything actually did go easier.”

Federer held serve at 5-6 to force the tiebreak and won that 7-3. The two-set lead broke Hewitt’s resistance and Federer plowed through the final set 6-0 to win his first US Open championship.

“First I was surprised that Lleyton was no longer getting to the ball,” Federer said of his moment of victory. “Then I was suddenly lying on my back, look­ing into the sky at the lights of the stadium. I thought, ‘That’s unbelievable.’ Once again I was close to tears.”