With her latest WTA trophy in Wuhan, Venus collected the 47th WTA title of her career, and more importantly, her biggest in more than five years.
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After more than two decades on the professional tennis circuit, Venus Williams is on an upswing and shows little sign of slowing, turning in one of her strongest seasons in years.
“It’s not easy when you don’t play your best”, Williams told Muguruza, adding that “I probably didn’t have a chance if you felt well”.
Her focus will, obviously, be on the grand slam tournaments, and while that might not please everyone, the fact is tennis players are remembered by the number of majors they have won, not by the number of year-end championships on their resume.
The 24-year-old has spent the year flitting between the main WTA tour and the lower ITF circuit, entering both the Wuhan Open and the US Open, where she reached the last 16, as a qualifier.
New British number one Johanna Konta decides to withdraw from the China Open, where she had been due to take part in the qualifying rounds.
“By the time I’m on the court, I’ve blocked it (pain) out if I’ve decided I’m going to play”.
Williams does earn points for poking fun at herself with the comment about her heart, but to talk about any other injuries before that hints that she was suggesting she wasn’t 100 percent during her U.S. Open semifinals loss to Roberta Vinci.
LONDON – Chelsea’s early season slump turned into a full-blown crisis on Saturday when it was beaten 3-1 by Southampton while Manchester City went top of the Premier League with Sergio Aguero scoring five in a 6-1 win over Newcastle United.
There are certainly stats to recommend backing a player of Ivanovic’s profile at a price such as 10/11.
Maria Sharapova led the charge of the walking wounded at Wuhan, retiring in the second set of her first match since Wimbledon. “I really had a few good matches last week, I hope I can keep that level up and keep improving”, said the 27-year-old Serb. “This tournament is open, it’s very important for everyone so I can say that you know maybe I have the chance, but it’s too far to think about that”.
As her coach Patrick Mouratoglou said to espnW, “I have no doubt the motivation will be there [going forward] and no doubt she’ll be the same Serena”.
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“The WTA Finals will be hard”.
