Sweet revenge as Venus advances to WTA semis
VENUS Williams gained revenge for her Wimbledon final defeat by Garbine Muguruza when the American advanced to the last four of the WTA Finals with a gutsy 7-5 6-4 victory over the Spanish world No 2 yesterday.
Both players knew a win would secure a passage to the semifinals as they held identical 1-1 records in White Group play at the season-ending event, but the 37-year-old was stronger on the key points and moved brilliantly around the court to progress.
Muguruza had brushed aside Williams to claim her second grand slam title in July but any hopes she had of repeating the feat were snuffed out by a resolute opponent, who simply refused to buckle in the tense Singapore Indoor Stadium encounter.
“I played an amazing opponent who has had an amazing year so I was so happy to win the last point,” Williams said in a courtside interview.
The victory enabled Williams, who won this event in 2008, to advance along with pool winner Karolina Pliskova, who won her first two matches but ended round-robin play with a 6-3 6-1 defeat by Jelena Ostapenko, of Latvia, earlier.
The winner-takes-all showdown started with Williams looking to dictate terms, pushing Muguruza around the court and attacking her second serve as the Spaniard countered by pushing back with deep groundstrokes.
The American continued to pick away at the Muguruza serve but an ace and a string of big forehand winners helped stave off the early threat as both combatants took the fight to each other in a high-class encounter.
The pair traded service breaks before Muguruza failed to hold on and send the opener into a tiebreak when Williams converted her third set point after the back-peddling Spaniard dumped a forehand into the net.
Muguruza’s repeated attempts to pull clear in the second were denied by Williams on every occasion, with the American twice battling back from behind to edge 5-4 ahead with her strongest service game of the set.
Williams made a concerted push for victory in the 10th game and sealed a memorable victory after an hour and 41 minutes when Muguruza sent another feeble forehand into the net.
“It’s not easy out here, you have to play every point well,” Williams said.
Earlier, Ostapenko ended her maiden WTA Finals campaign on a winning note with an easy victory over a subdued Pliskova, saving her best until last after she was eliminated earlier in the week.
World No 3 Pliskova won her opening two matches against Williams and Muguruza to book a semifinal berth, but the Czech was outgunned by the French Open champion. – Reuters