The Courier & Advertiser (Perth and Perthshire Edition)
Williams extends her run
SERENA WILLIA MS rallied to beat Maria Sharapova for a 15th straight time and advance to the final of the Sony Open tennis tournament in Miami.
Williams was defending an enviable run against the Russian but found herself trailing 4-1 in the first set before winning five games in a row to take it 6-4.
Williams then pulled away from a 3-3 tie in the second set to win 6-3 and advance.
Sharapova, determined to end years of misery against Williams, started strongly with plenty of power but Williams recovered her poise to give back as good as she got with some huge groundstrokes.
“It wa s n ’ t e a s y,” Williams told the WTA website. “Obviously Maria plays really well, and she’s done really well here, so I just decided I had to do a little better, stay focused and make more shots.”
Williams is now through to her ninth career final at the Sony Open Tennis, having won six of them.
“That’s pretty awesome — I didn’t even realise!” Williams said. “But I just love playing here in Miami.”
A ndy Murray was left to rue his failure to capitalise on several openings after old foe Novak Djokovic ended his Sony Open title defence.
Wo r l d No 2 Djokovic gained a measure of revenge for his defeat to Murray in last year’s Wimbledon final with a clinical 7-5 6-3 win in their quarter-final encounter.
Murray admitted he failed to take his chances but took comfort in some aspects of his performance.
“I had many opportunities like 30-all games and 0-30s on his serve, and I didn’t serve so well when I went ahead in the second set,” Murray said on the A TPTour website.
“I would have liked to have done that better, but I was hitting the ball better from the back of the court.
“I was playing aggressive. I was taking the ball early. My game is not far from where I want it to be.”
Djokovic will face Kei Nishikori in the last four after the 20th seed rallied from a set and a break down to stun 2005 and 2006 champion Roger Federer.