US veteran Venus Williams won her 44th career title — and first in more than two-and-a-half years — when she brushed aside Romanian Monica Niculescu in straight sets in the Luxembourg Open final on Sunday.
Playing in the 71st final of her career, the 32-year-old Williams won 6-2, 6-3 in her first meeting with the 25-year-old from Bucharest.
Williams’ career haul of 44 WTA titles is second-highest among active players, trailing only her sister Serena, who has won 45 and could make that 46 as she plays the WTA Championships in Istanbul this week.
“I had to work so hard to get to the final — the match against Andrea Petkovic in the semi-finals was so challenging and the two matches before as well, and even my first round I had to stay really focused,” Williams said. “Monica was in her second final here so she obviously feels really good on this court. You have to hit five, six, seven shots more than usual. It can be frustrating. She’s tricky. You have to be ready.”
“The score looked easy but the first set was 6-2 and like 42 minutes,” Williams added. “Coming to the tournament this week I was just trying to play well. I didn’t know if I could win this event, so to stand here as the winner is a wonderful way for me to end the year, and it really makes me look forward to next year as well.”
Williams’ last title came at Acapulco in February 2010, before her career went into freefall.
She missed most of the second half of 2010 with a knee injury, most of the first half of last year with hip and abdominal injuries and, most recently, a seven-month lay-off between September last year and March this year due to illness.
Shohei Ohtani and his wife arrived in South Korea with his Los Angeles Dodgers teammates yesterday ahead of their season-opening games with the San Diego Padres next week. Ohtani, wearing a black training suit and a cap backwards, was the first Dodgers player who showed up at the arrival gate of Incheon International Airport, west of Seoul. His wife, Mamiko Tanaka, walked several steps behind him. As a crowd of fans, many wearing Dodgers jerseys, shouted his name and cheered slogans, Ohtani briefly waved his hand, but did not say anything before he entered a limousine bus with his wife. Fans held placards
Taiwan’s Tai Tzu-ying yesterday advanced to the quarter-finals at the All England Open, beating Kim Ga-eun of South Korea 21-17, 21-15. With the win, Tai earned a semi-final against China’s He Bingjiao, who beat Michelle Li of Canada 21-9, 21-9. Defending champion An Se-young defeated India’s P.V. Sindhu 21-19, 21-11. An on Wednesday cruised into the second round, unlike last year’s men’s winner, Li Shifeng, who suffered a shock defeat. South Korea’s An, the world No. 1, overcame Taiwan’s Hsu Wen-chi 21-17, 21-16 to set up the match against Sindhu. In other women’s singles matches, Taiwan’s Sung Shuo-yun lost 21-18, 24-22 against Carolina Marin of
EYEING TOP SPOT: A victory in today’s final against Storm Hunter and Katerina Siniakova would return 38-year-old Hsieh Su-wei to the world No. 1 ranking Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Elise Mertens on Thursday secured a spot in the women’s doubles finals at the BNP Paribas Open after dispatching Nicole Melichar-Martinez of the US and Australia’s Ellen Perez 6-2, 7-6 (7/5) at Indian Wells. Hsieh and her Belgian partner Mertens, who won the Australian Open in late January, coasted through the first set after breaking their opponents’ serve twice, but found the going tougher in the second. Both pairs could only muster one break point over 12 games, neither of which were converted, leaving the set to be decided by a tiebreaker. Hsieh and Mertens took a 6-3 lead,
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