Wozniacki stands firm to claim WTA Finals title
FORMER WORLD NO 1 ELATED AFTER FIRST CAREER VICTORY OVER VENUS
aroline Wozniacki claimed the biggest title of her career after the Dane staved off a ferocious Venus Williams fightback to take a 6-4 6-4 triumph in the WTA Finals title showdown at a captivated Singapore Indoor Stadium yesterday.
The 27-year-old former world No. 1 entered the contest having lost to the evergreen Venus seven times in as many matches but the resilient Dane served and retrieved brilliantly and emerged with a deserved victory after 89 minutes.
Wozniacki was faultless for an hour as she raced to a oneset and 5-0 lead but Venus always plays to win and the 37-year-old American reeled off four games in a row before the Dane could finally lift the title at the elite, eight-woman event in her fifth appearance.
“It was all going well at 5-0 in the second set, then she went for her shots and I was just so happy to get it done in the end,” Wozniacki, who will rise three places to third in the world rankings after the win, said in a courtside interview.
Both flanks
“Well, eight is my lucky number and I figured if I was ever going to beat her it would be today... and I just went out there and did my best.”
The first three games were dominated by the server until the Dane started to find the corners with her powerful backhand and fashioned the first break of the match with backto-back winners off both flanks.
Venus was trying to get to the net at every opportunity and came forward to good effect after dropping her serve. A vicious cross-court backhand enabled the American to break back immediately on her way to levelling the score at 3-3.
She continued to be the aggressor but the Dane held on in the face of some brutal hitting for her opponent and somehow forged her second break of the set with some exquisite deep hitting to move within one game of taking the opener.
The American came roaring back once more, leaving the Dane looking on as a helpless spectator, with a barrage of winners to get the high-class contest back on serve.
Wozniacki’s victory is her second of the season in eight finals after she successfully defended her Pan Pacific Open title in Tokyo last month. Simona Halep set her sights on breaking through for her first Grand Slam title yesterday after securing the year-end world No. 1 ranking — and a vote of confidence from Roger Federer.
The Romanian became the 13th year-end women’s No. 1 despite struggling at the WTA Finals in Singapore, winning just once to bow out at the round-robin stage. Her next challenge is a maiden Grand Slam win. Halep came desperately close in this year’s French Open final, when she blew a set and 3-0 lead against 20-year-old Jelena Ostapenko.
“Of course, my new dream is to win a Grand Slam,” she said. “I just want to work harder to get better, because I need to do that and we will see what is going to happen.” The 26-year-old recently received support from Swiss great Federer, who said Halep “deserves” to be world No. 1.
“I felt really proud of myself that Roger Federer could talk about me like that,” Halep said.