Venus stuns Muguruza to advance at WTA Finals
0 Comment(s)
Print
E-mail Shanghai Daily, October 27, 2017
Venus Williams gained revenge for her Wimbledon final defeat by Garbine Muguruza when the American advanced to the last four of the WTA Finals with a gutsy 7-5, 6-4 victory over the Spanish world No. 2 yesterday.
Both players knew a win would secure a passage to the semifinals as they held identical 1-1 records in White Group play at the season-ending event but the 37-year-old was stronger on the key points and moved brilliantly around the court to progress.
Muguruza had brushed aside Williams to claim her second grand slam title in July but any hopes she had of repeating the feat were snuffed out by a resolute opponent, who simply refused to buckle in the tense Singapore Indoor Stadium encounter.
"I played an amazing opponent who has had an amazing year so I was so happy to win the last point," Williams said in a courtside interview.
The victory enabled Williams, who won this event in 2008, to advance along with pool winner Karolina Pliskova, who won her first two matches but ended round-robin play with a 3-6, 1-6 defeat by Jelena Ostapenko earlier yesterday.
Ostapenko ended her maiden WTA Finals campaign on a winning note with a surprisingly easy victory over a subdued Pliskova, the Latvian saving her best until last after she was eliminated earlier in the week.
World No. 3 Pliskova won her opening two matches against Williams and Muguruza to book a semifinal berth but the Czech was out-gunned by the French Open champion in 66 minutes.
Ostapenko had battled hard in her opening matches to no avail, especially in a gruelling three-set loss to Williams, but she served brilliantly against Pliskova.
Caroline Wozniacki has already advanced from the Red Group with one round of matches remaining, while Simona Halep, Caroline Garcia and Elina Svitolina can all still qualify alongside the Dane when play concludes in that pool today.
Go to Forum >>0 Comment(s)