Caroline Wozniacki had everything come together at the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Sunday night. The Dane earned her second WTA title and the most important one to end the season with her first win over Venus Williams winning 6-4, 6-4 on Centre Court at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. Despite the amazing comeback that the American nearly pulled off in the second set, the newly crowned world number one held her off in the final moments to win her first Billy Jean King championship trophy. It was the first time in eight matches that Wozniacki defeated the American and the sweetest to conclude the 2017 WTA Tour.
This was the first time both have met at the finals and the eighth overall in their meetings. The American has Wozniacki’s number in each victory since 2005 and hoped to keep the streak alive. The veteran put in a lot of work in order to defeat Caroline Garcia in three sets Saturday to achieve her third consecutive final that to advance in. The Dane went the distance in the opening set against Karolina Pliskova finishing the world number three in straight sets winning 6-3. With less effort in her semifinal, the 27-year-old hoped to have an advantage against Williams and be able to defeat her to become a first time winner.
They came out of the gate serving out each other in the first two games that enabled a quick break from Williams that gave her the brief lead. Wozniacki followed suit to level the score, turning the set around to return to service holds. It went on for another pair of games before the Dane broke Williams to gain a footing in the set. She reached 5-3 in the eighth looking to get the set over and done with.
The 37-year-old broke back with a key break that avoided the end for a moment. When Wozniacki got back the ball in the tenth, she pressured Williams into producing a couple of errors, gaining two set points to win the set 6-4 in 41 minutes. She had just three errors in the set carrying a lower serve percentage than Williams hose downfall was the errors on the forehand.
The 27-year-old took advantage of her opponent’s weaknesses and was on a sole mission to dominate further. The second set was all Wozniacki who blasted out a strong first serve followed by a break to show her strengths. She continued gaining momentum with a fourth straight win with the strategy of being aggressive against Williams’ serve playing every ball and point.
The American forced deuce on her own serve to try to get back into some kind of contention. The Dane wouldn’t have any of that as she turned the tables and regained control to win her fourth of the set. When the ball was back in her hands, she put down another set of shots that Williams still couldn’t answer much on to play for the title. Williams avoided the shutout in the sixth but had to endure the skills of the Danish star that was on point.
A frustrating moment came in the seventh as the crowd got out of hand that got the best of Wozniacki. She made her opinions clear and tried coming back from the two-break deficit. It was not meant to be as the veteran got another win under her belt that turned into an amazing statement on court. Williams showed her fight and produced a game that had her leaving Wozniacki helpless on court. The American made it 4-5 in what was nearly a thrilling comeback with the former number one back on serve. She saw her opponent strike back, not wanting to let the entire set get out of her hands.
She forced deuce with Williams after a failed attempt to get match point on the break was stopped by the American. She got Williams to move around just enough setting up a second championship point. On a nine-shot rally, Wozniacki laid out a final winner to Williams’ right that brought an end to the match in 1 hour and 29 minutes.
“I was up 5-0 and was playing well and all of the sudden Venus starts upping her game and she went for a shot and started serving to my body and I’m just so happy to manage to win this tournament in the end,” the champion said to Andrew Krasny after the match.
With a year full of defeats and continued losses to Venus Williams over the years, the lone victory gave Wozniacki a lot to be thrilled about. "Eight happens to be my lucky number," Wozniacki said. "I was hoping that if I'm gonna beat her at least once in my career, it has to be today and I just went out there and did my best."
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