Agnieszka Radwanska poses with the winner’s trophy. (AP-Yonhap News)
KEY BISCAYNE, Florida (AP) ― The two finalists met at the net to shake hands, Maria Sharapova standing a head taller, even with her shoulders slumped in disappointment.
She finished second again Saturday.
Sharapova lost serve in the final game of each set and fell short in the latest bid for her first Sony Ericsson Open title, losing to Agnieszka Radwanska 7-5, 6-4.
Sharapova, a three-time Grand Slam champion, is winless in four Key Biscayne finals. She was also the runner-up in 2005, 2006 and last year.
The pattern extends beyond South Florida. Ranked No. 2, she was runner-up at both the Australian Open and Indian Wells to Victoria Azarenka, which makes her 0 for 3 this year in finals.
“It’s always tough, because you do a really good job to get there,” Sharapova said. “It’s obviously always the toughest round.”
She hasn’t won a tournament since August.
Radwanska, ranked a career-best No. 4, earned her ninth career title and fourth since last summer. She’s 0-4 in 2012 against the top-ranked Azarenka and 26-0 against everyone else.
The match was 72 minutes old before Radwanska hit her first baseline winner. She was content to play the role of counterpuncher and extend rallies until the more aggressive, harder-hitting Sharapova would make a mistake.
There was a 28-stroke rally in the first game, but many of the points were quick, with Sharapova often too eager to end them. She finished with 45 unforced errors, most due to an unreliable backhand.
The relentless Radwanska committed only 10 unforced errors while chasing down almost everything, sometimes scooping balls at shoe-top level to keep a point going.
“She hit a lot of good balls on the run, and they were deep,” Sharapova said.
“She didn’t just bring them back; she had something on them. Then the few errors on important points that I made, I thought maybe I shouldn’t have gone for the line so much, and aimed a little bit closer to the middle.”
The 5-foot-8 Radwanska used pinpoint placement of her serves to compensate for their modest pace, and erased all three break points she faced.
“Today was a very tight match,” she said. “I think I was just better for couple of points each set.”