World number one Serena Williams continued her march towards her fourth Toronto title Friday with a 6-4, 6-3 dismantling of Italy’s Roberta Vinci in the quarterfinals of the WTA Rogers Cup.
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She will try to complete a calendar-year Grand Slam sweep by winning the US Open, which begins in two weeks at New York.
“I was just really struggling with my serve today and everything wasn’t right with it”, she said. “And all this work paid off today I think and this feeling is indescribable”. Last month an elbow injury forced her to retire in the round of 16 at a tournament in Sweden, and compelled her to skip the Stanford Bank of the West Classic in late July.
That allowed Bencic to become noticeably more aggressive on Williams’ second serve and helped change the dynamics of a match thought to be a warm-up for Serena for tomorrow’s final against Simona Halep. “And she was playing awesome – I couldn’t do anything”, said Halep who will face fifteenth seed Sara Errani in the semis.
Right now, that means having her own collection – the Serena Williams Signature Statement Collection – and humble bragging about her trophies.
Halep went on to win that game and from that point she was fully engaged in the match winning that set and the next one.
“Well, I think she’ll have a bit of stress going back to Wimbledon, as she did at the French Open“, the coach said in the report.
“You know, I actually played a couple of matches like this this year, but I was able to get through them”.
As a reward, Bencic will go for her second singles title this year on Sunday against No. 2 seed Simona Halep.
In the final game, Bencic delivered a driving backhand that Williams couldn’t return to get to match point and hit a stinging forehand victor to seal the victory. “I felt very exhausted”, Halep said. Bencic opened with a victory over Eugenie Bouchard and followed with wins over fourth-seeded Caroline Wozniacki, Sabine Lisicki and fifth-seeded Ana Ivanovic. “I feel more confident now”. Between her and Williams, the series has been brief but nothing unsurprising to fans.
Then with the American’s 43-1 match record on the line, Williams struck several baseline winners and aces to win four or the next five games but still trail 4-5 as Bencic double-faulted on breakpoint.
“But I’m in the final and everything that comes is going to be a bonus”.
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Radwanska won the Rogers Cup last year in Montreal.
