Venus holds on, seeks 50th title
Williams starts fast, then shows stamina in forcing tiebreaker to beat Riske
STANFORD — Venus Williams will play for her 50th professional singles championship in the tournament where it all began for the elder half of the legendary sister duo.
Twenty-two years after making her professional debut at the Bank of the West Classic, the top-seeded Williams defeated fellow American Alison Riske 61, 7-6 (2) in a semifinal Saturday night at Stanford’s Taube Family Tennis Stadium.
Williams, 36, moves on to face third-seeded Johanna Konta of Great Britain, a 6-4, 6-2 winner over second-seeded Dominika Cibulkova earlier Saturday, in the final Sunday.
Konta will be seeking her first singles championship, Williams her 50th.
“The number means that I’d like to do that and surpass it,” Williams said after her 1-hour, 39-minute semifinal. “I definitely don’t want to stop at 50.
I’d like to keep going. I’d like reach 50 tomorrow.”
The victory Saturday, which turned out to be anything but routine, marked the eighth time Williams has reached the Bank of the West final. She has won the tournament twice, in 2000 and 2002.
“She is really remarkable,” said Riske, 26. “I feel like she gives a lot of hope to a lot of players for the longevity aspect. I admire her so much for it.”
Williams will be the oldest finalist at the Bank of the West since a then-38year-old Martina Navratilova lost to Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario in 1994, when the tournament was played in Oakland. That happened to be the tournament in which Williams, at 14, made her pro debut.
On Saturday, Williams dominated the first set against an opponent who has made just one previous professional final but had to battle hard to survive the second set.
Riske had a simple explanation for match’s change in direction.
“I started putting the ball in the court, for starters,” said Riske, who had one previous match against Williams, a straight-set loss earlier this year. “I really couldn’t find the court in the first set. I think it was just a slow start, really not even nerves. I knew that going into the second it could only get better, and I gave myself as many chances as I could. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough.”
Riske fought off two match points to break serve, drawing even 5-5. Two games later, Williams saved two set points to force a tiebreaker.
“There were two set points?” Williams asked during an on-court interview. “When you’re out there, at times you get so in the moment that you kind of realize it, but you don’t. Then when someone tells you, you’re like, ‘Oh, man.’ ”
Six of Williams’ seven double faults came in the second set, including three in a row that cost her a chance to serve out the match.
“The first set everything was going my way,” Williams said. “She had a few errors. In the second set, it was just two service games from like a 6-2 instead of a 7-6. Those service games, it’s not like I played badly.
“I hit a lot of amazing first serves in and ended up somehow losing those points quite handily. Credit to her. She just stepped up her game.”
Earlier Saturday, Konta became the first British player to advance to a Bank of the West final since Virginia Wade did so 35 years ago, using a dominant service game to turn back Cibulkova.
“She is an incredible competitor,” Konta said. “I knew going into the match that I was going to have to be there for every single point. I felt I achieved that.”
Konta had 13 winners in the first set, winning four of her five service games in the set at love. She punctuated her dominance with an ace up the middle to close out the set.
In the second set, she was even better.
Konta won 27 of the 29 first serves she put in play overall, a phenomenal performance by a player making her first appearance in this tournament.
“I definitely felt I needed to take care of things on my end the best possible way,” Konta said in a television interview. “I was very effective with my breathing and just really playing within myself.”
Konta also had a winning percentage of 73 (11 for 15) on her second serve. She saved all three break-point chances Cibulkova had and fired off seven aces.
“Her placing was very good,” Cibulkova said. “Her serve was fast, but it wasn’t the main problem. She was just placing the serve really well, and it was really hard to read it.”
Cibulkova had hoped to do better on Konta’s second serve, adding, “That’s what made a difference because in the rallies I felt better. I felt I had most of the rallies under control, but her serving was too good.”
In their only previous meeting, in January in Hobart, Australia, Cibulkova beat Konta 7-6 (6), 7-5.
There was a notable difference Saturday.
“She was serving much, much better,” Cibulkova said. “That was the biggest difference today.”