Venus reaches semis at WTA Finals
Singapore — Venus Williams reached the semifinals at the WTA Finals by beating Wimbledon champion Garbine Muguruza 7-5, 6-4 on Thursday.
The 37-year-old Williams advanced from the White Group along with Karolina Pliskova, who lost to French Open champion Jelena Ostapenko 6-3, 6-1. Both Williams and Pliskova finished with 2-1 records.
Williams, who first reached the No. 1 ranking in February 2002, was asked how she has managed to have such a long career.
“I use a lot of sun protection, sunscreen. I eat a lot of fruits and vegetables,” Williams said. “That’s been the key to my success.”
Williams won the WTA Finals in 2008 and reached the final in 2009, which was the last time she appeared in the year-end tournament.
On Thursday, Muguruza made 32 unforced errors to 26 for Williams.
“I’m very proud of this year.” said Muguruza, who reached the No. 1 ranking for the first time this season. “I knew here that it’s going to be tough, the best eight players are playing.”
Pliskova led 3-2 in the first set of the early match, but the already-eliminated Ostapenko won the next seven games for a 6-3, 3-0 lead.
“Really tough to push myself into it and to play the best tennis if you know you’re qualified,” Pliskova said. “Wasn’t being ever in this situation, so I felt weird today.”
Pliskova, who earned the No. 1 ranking for the first time in her career after Wimbledon, remains in contention to finish the season at the top. Muguruza, Simona Halep, Elina Svitolina and Caroline Wozniacki also have a chance to become the year-end No. 1.
Martina Hingis announced Thursday that she will retire from tennis for the third time in her career at the end of the ongoing WTA Finals.
The Swiss initially confirmed the news on Twitter and Facebook after winning her quarterfinal doubles match. The top-seeded pair, Hingis and Chan Yung-Jan of Taipei, defeated Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany and Kveta Peschke of Czech Republic 6-3, 6-2.
“I told Latisha (Chan) from the start (of the year), ‘Hey this will probably be my last year,” Hingis said. “Probably people think after a season like this (to continue) but I think it’s perfect timing because you want to stop on top.”
The 37-year-old Hingis amassed five Grand Slam singles titles, 13 Grand Slam doubles titles, and seven Grand Slam mixed doubles titles during her stop-start career.