Wozniacki ends Venus jinx to win WTA Finals

0 Comment(s)Print E-mail Shanghai Daily, October 30, 2017
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 Wozniacki returns a shot in the game.



Caroline 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 last night.

The 27-year-old former world No. 1 entered the contest having lost to the evergreen Williams 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 one-set and 5-0 lead but Williams 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 courtside. "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 serves until the Dane started to find the corners with her powerful backhand and fashioned the first break of the match.

Williams 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 leveling the score at 3-3.

She continued to be the aggressor but the Dane held on in the face of some brutal hitting from 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 contest back on serve.

After working so hard to stay in touch, Williams would have been deeply frustrated to gift her opponent the set when the Dane did not have to work to seize the third break in a row, the wayward American sending forehands wide, long and into the net.

Wozniacki had seized the momentum with her variation, depth of shot and complete lack of errors preventing Williams from grabbing any sort of foothold in the contest and the flying Dane raced into a 5-0 lead in 11 second-set minutes.

Needing to hold serve just to stay in the contest, Williams found her rhythm to belatedly get on the scoreboard in the second set and then secured two breaks to get it back to 5-4.

Wozniacki’s win is her second of the season in eight finals after she defended her Pan Pacific title in Tokyo last month.

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