Venus To Face Wozniacki For Year-End WTA Finals Title
Former No. 1s Venus Williams and Caroline Wozniacki will meet Sunday for the title of the Singapore WTA Finals.
Williams, the lone former champion at the start of the event, rallied from a set down to deny the hot-handed Caroline Garcia 6-7(3), 6-2, 6-3.
“Garcia has competed so well this whole tournament, and every time I thought I was getting close she played amazing,” Venus said. “It’s not over ‘til the fat lady sings – but I’m not fat!”
“I’m going to be playing against one of the best players in the tournament, and another Caroline! It’s going to be like deja vu!” Venus added. “But I’m really happy, she’s a great friend and I’m really happy that one of us will win tomorrow.”
Venus broke in the third for 5-3 and then served it out to reach her third title match at the WTA Finals. She won in 2008 and made the finals in 2007.
“I was missing a little bit of energy in the second and third set,” Garcia said. “I mean, it was very intense this match and she played some great tennis. She was changing direction very well, she was aggressive.
“You know, I just missed a couple of short balls that I didn’t make enough difference, and she passed me. But it was, I guess, very close.”
Wozniacki ended Karolina Pliskova’s hopes at No. 1 denying the Czech 7-6(9), 6-3. It’s the Dane’s second trip to the year-end title match after finishing runner-up in 2010.
Pliskova, who needed to win the title to claim the year-end No. 1, was up a break in the first and in the tiebreaker overcame a 6-1 deficit.
“I got a good start in the tiebreaker, 6-1, and I was feeling pretty good about it,” Wozniacki said. “Then, you know, all of a sudden it’s 6-2, 6-3, 6-4, and I said this isn’t fun anymore. Let me just try and finish this off. At 6-All I was ready to just kill myself, basically.
“I started thinking I should have lost this set already, so actually this is just a bonus. So I had a lot of talks with myself at that point.”
Venus has won all seven career meetings with Wozniacki, though they haven’t met in over 2.5 years since 2015 Miami.
The 37-year-old Venus is seeking her 50th career title and first of the year. Wozniacki is bidding for her 27th title.
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