Venus Williams to face Konta in Stanford final
Top-seeded Venus Williams ran all over the court to extend long points and overcame her inconsistent serve before a dominant tiebreaker, holding off gutsy fellow American Alison Riske 6-1, 7-6 (2) on Saturday night to reach the Bank of the West final at Stanford.
Leading 5-4 in the second set with a chance to close it out, Williams squandered a pair of match points with three straight double-faults.
Williams, 36, was breezing until Riske found a groove. She dug out shots with her strong baseline game to keep pressure on Williams, who looked like vintage Venus for much of the match on a hot summer night for the Bay Area.
“It’s been a lot of fun. It’s been a lot of work. It’s been a lot of inspired opponents I’ve played. It’s not like they just rolled over. They tried to win and some of them almost beat me, and some of them did beat me,” she said, chuckling. “That’s the wonderful part, stepping up and looking forward to going to these matches and feeling excited about it.”
Williams advances to Sunday’s title match against thirdseeded Johanna Konta, who beat second seed Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia 6-4, 6-2 to reach her first career final.
Williams has said during the tournament that her strong run to the Wimbledon semifinals fueled her to get back on the court at every chance. She won the last of her 49 singles titles in Taiwan in February.
“She’s really remarkable,” Riske said. “I feel she gives a lot of hope to a lot of players for the longevity aspect.”
Williams reached her eighth final at Stanford, second of 2016 and 80th of her career.
She is a two-time Stanford winner, with her last victory in 2002 against Kim Clijsters. Winning again in the Bay Area, where she has had so much success, would mean a lot.
“That would be really, really wonderful, and I hope I can achieve it,” she said before a swift departure to rest.
Citi Open: Ivo Karlovic’s big serve carried him to a second consecutive final at age 37, as he earned a 6-4, 6-4 victory over fifth-seeded American Steve Johnson in Washington.
The 6-foot-11 Karlovic, a Croatian seeded 13th at the hard-court tournament, saved all five break points he faced in the semifinals. He has won all 43 of his service games this week.
Karlovic will face No. 2seeded Gael Monfils, who advanced by breaking No. 7 Alexander Zverev four times in a 6-4, 6-0 victory.
In the women’s semifinals, No. 7 Yanina Wickmayer beat No. 6 Yulia Putintseva 6-4, 6-2, and 122nd-ranked Lauren Davis defeated 173rd-ranked Jessica Pegula 6-2, 6-3 in a matchup of 22-year-old Americans.
Generali Open: Paolo Lorenzi of Italy became the oldest first-time winner of an ATP event after beating Nikoloz Basilashvili of Georgia 6-3, 6-4 in Kitzbuehel, Austria.
At 34 years and seven months, the 48th-ranked Lorenzi, who was seeded fourth, was appearing in his second career final. The 123rd-ranked Basilashvili was the first Georgian player to appear in an ATP final.