Playing her first tournament since recovering from a virus that forced her to retire from a Wimbledon doubles match, world No.1 Serena Williams showed that she’s in commanding form for the US Open, by claiming her fourth title of 2014 and third at Stanford.
In the final against third-seeded Angelique Kerber, Williams came back from a significant deficit in the opening set, 1-5, tied the score and dominated the tiebreak, while in the second set she didn’t even face a break point and triumphed at the Bank of the West Classic in straight sets 7-6(1) 6-3. Earlier at the $710,000 tournament, after a first-round bye, the top-seeded Williams beat Karolina Pliskova in the second round, fifth seed Ana Ivanovic in the quarterfinals and eighth-seed Andrea Petkovic in the semis.
Serena’s winning apparel: Nike’s new leopard line – combination of the purple Fall Graphic Burnout Tank and matching wristbands with a classic black skort.
Elsewhere, at the $250,000 Citi Open in Washington, Svetlana Kuznetsova won her first WTA title in four years by beating Kurumi Nara 6-3 4-6 6-4.
Meanwhile, Women’s Tennis Blog has been reporting live from the Rogers Cup in Montreal: the first gathering of players on Friday, the start of qualifying action on Saturday and the busy Sunday, which saw the second day of qualifying and the practices of big names, especially Victoria Azarenka who worried the crowd by fiddling with her left thigh and cutting her practice session short. Stay with us this week for more exclusive updates from the Rogers Cup!
Struggled in the first set, but because she’s a champion, she fought back. I am so happy she held up the trophy! Now, what was up with all that nonsense chatter coming from Chris Evert and Pam Shriver when Serena stepped it up in the second set? They were quick to point out her errors in the 1st set, especially Chris (as usual). They should have been raving over the shots she was making (Pam is slowly improving by showing a little more support). Weren’t they paid to comment about the match (hint: commentators)? Give me Martina N., Lindsey Davenport, and/or Renae Stubbs, please!!
By the way, Chrissie, Sharapova is Russian and plays for Russia; Serena is American and plays for America…your country. “Go, Serena! You’re going to win the US Open.”
Angelique, your day is coming. You’ll win a grand slam yet. Keep working hard and stay humble. I love the way you acknowledged Serena as the number one female tennis player in the world, which she is, not by rank alone.
Yea the commentators can be sooooo sad sometimes….it’s like they don’t want to see Serena do well or something…. Off subject but I really think Sara Errani will win a grand slam too!!