Serbian sweep as Djokovic, Ivanovic win Indian Wells 

Agencies Indian Wells, March 24: Novak Djokovic and Ana Ivanovic won the Pacific Life Open finals in a Serbian sweep on Sunday. Djokovic compensated for losing last year's final by ending American Mardy Fish's string of upsets 6-2, 5-7, 6-3. Women's top seed Ivanovic consigned second-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova to runner-up for a second straight year by winning 6-4, 6-3. The 20-year-olds' his and her championships came some two months after they just missed a sweep in the Australian Open.

Djokovic beat Jo-Wilfried Tsonga for the men's title, and Ivanovic lost to Maria Sharapova in the final. There has been civil strife in Kosovo since it declared its independence from Serbia last month, but Djokovic and Ivanovic said they do not want to discuss politics. Serbian swimmer Milorad Cavic was suspended from the European swimming championships on Friday for wearing a T-shirt proclaiming "Kosovo is Serbia" at a medal ceremony. "I'm really sad to hear about this," Ivanovic said. "But on the other hand, I don't know much about politics and I don't get involved in that area. When I'm out here playing, I just want to represent my country in the best possible way. "They (Serbs) really love tennis right now. It's a cool thing to wake up (in the middle of the night) and watch us play," she said, alluding to the time difference. "They're proud to be Serbians, like I think everyone is in their own country." Djokovic, whose father and other relatives are from Kosovo, recently taped a video saying he believes Kosovo will always be a part of Serbia.

"It kind of touched me in that moment that this was my quest to give support to my country," he said. Otherwise, he said, he simply considers himself an athlete representing his country. "I think professional athletes all over the world... are one of the biggest ambassadors of their country; considering the fact that our country is in a very difficult position, they're struggling in economics and politics, as well," he said. "But this is something I don't want to get involved in." Djokovic was given the tough match expected by Fish, the lowest-ranked finalist in nine years at 98th. Fish stunned No. 1 Roger Federer in the semifinals, No. 4 Nikolay Davydenko and No. 7 David Nalbandian and refused to buckle under Djokovic, who came within two points of the title receiving serve at 4-5 in the second set.

Fish held serve, then broke Djokovic and won his service game again to force a third set. Djokovic seemed to slip out of his rhythm during Fish's comeback, twice slamming his racket to the court after missing shots. Fish then had 0-40 on Djokovic's serve in the opening game, but the Serb saved them all with two of his five aces. He then broke Fish in the next game with a backhand winner down the line and held serve the rest of the way to claim his ninth career title and second of the year. Ivanovic claimed her sixth career WTA Tour title with another blazing forehand winner after 81 minutes. Kuznetsova lost her third final of the season, following Sydney and Dubai. The Russian, a former U.S. Open champion, has lost eight of her last nine finals, and the lone title last August at New Haven came on an injury retirement.

Ivanovic pushed Kuznetsova twice off the court into forced errors for the 5-4 break then served a love game for the first set. "It's a great victory for me," Ivanovic said. "When I managed to break her on 4-all it gave me confidence, and I went strong from that point on." In the second, the two traded early breaks but Kuznetsova was under increasing pressure and lost the last four games. "She wasn't giving me any free points and she was attacking," Kuznetsova said. "You feel like it's her day, like everything goes her way." Kuznetsova, runner-up to Daniela Hantuchova last year, ended Maria Sharapova's 18-match winning start to this season in the semifinals on Friday. She has a career mark of 9-15 in tour finals. "It's always painful to lose, but I prefer to get to the final losing than to lose in second round," she said. "I still played a pretty good tournament."