Fifth seed Venus Williams joined Karolina Pliskova as the second semifinalist out of the White Group, beating second seed Garbine Muguruza in their final round-robin match. In a repeat of their this year’s Wimbledon final, Williams avenged her loss with a 7-5 6-4 triumph at the 2017 WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global.
The 37-year-old American won a see-saw opening set by taking advantage of Muguruza’s loose service game in the twelfth game, as even though the Spaniard did save two set points, on the third one she netted a forehand error. The fact that Williams won just three points more than Muguruza in the set shows just how close it was.
The second set started with three straight breaks and with Muguruza being the first one to hold serve she established an early 3-1 lead. Just like in the previous set, Williams caught up, then while serving at 4-4 she earned a clean hold, and again won a set by breaking Muguruza’s serve, taking advantage of her opponent’s further errors.
Besides Williams and Pliskova who are White Group’s semifinalists, Red Group Caroline Wozniacki’s place in the semifinals is also certain, while the fourth spot is yet to be occupied by Simona Halep, Caroline Garcia or Elina Svitolina.
Venus really took her chances. She was on fire! Garbi looked a bit flat but nice season for her. World #1 and second slam.