Muguruza takes on Venus in final of Wuhan Open
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FORMER world No. 1 Venus Williams salvaged a small bit of family pride when she fought back from a set down to see off Italy’s Roberto Vinci 5-7, 6-2, 7-6 (4) and reach the final of the Wuhan Open yesterday.
The 35-year-old American, winner of seven grand slam singles titles, will face Wimbledon finalist Garbine Muguruza after the Spaniard knocked out Germany’s Angelique Kerber 6-4, 7-6 (5).
Vinci, who stunned Venus’ younger sister Serena in the US Open semifinals last month denying her a calendar year grand slam, fought back from 0-3 down to take a topsy-turvy first set featuring five breaks of serve.
But she failed to hit the heights thereafter as Venus, who won her 700th match on tour earlier this week, took command in the second set, racing ahead 5-1 before forcing the decider.
An early break put the American up 3-1 in the third set but she stumbled when serving for the match at 5-3, with the Italian, chasing a best-ever world ranking of 11th this week, breaking and then holding her own serve to make it 5-5.
It was then Vinci’s turn to wobble when serving for the match. The doubles specialist, who lost the US Open final to compatriot Flavia Pennetta, failed to convert a match point and was broken as Williams forced a tiebreak.
Williams secured an early mini-break as she wrapped up the match in just under three hours to reach her 77th career final and first at the fledgling tournament staged in the home town of China’s first grand slam singles champion Li Na.
“Definitely watching the match at the US Open, I learned a lot from Serena,” Williams, who with 46 career titles has more wins to her name than the other semifinalists combined, said after her win. “If I could, I’d give my win to Serena at the US Open — unfortunately it doesn’t work like that.”
Muguruza suffered an ankle injury but kept up her bid to qualify for the eight-woman end-of-year WTA Tour Finals in Singapore by coming through a hard-fought clash against sixth seed Kerber.
The Venezuelan-born 21-year-old called the trainer at 3-3 in the second set tiebreaker but recovered to claim the win.
“It was a really tough match and I had to struggle today,” Muguruza said. “Venus is a legend. I’ll have to go out there and do my best to win against her and I think it’s going to be a great final.”
The world No. 8 entered the semifinals as the highest ranked player. And she will rise to a career-high of No. 5 having made the semifinals, and would reach No. 4 if she takes the title today.
In Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Donna Vekic of Croatia beat Evgenia Rodina or Russia 7-5, 6-1 yesterday to set up a Tashkent Open final against Nao Hibino of Japan.
Vekic, 19, is 1-2 in career tour finals, including a loss in the final of the 2012 Tashkent Open to Irina-Camelia Begu.
Hibino beat Bojana Jovanovic of Serbia 6-3, 6-4, staving off a late comeback after her opponent bounced back from 1-4 down to level the second set at 4-4.
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