Venus Williams won her biggest title in five years at the Wuhan Open yesterday after Garbine Muguruza retired, making her the fifth player to pull out mid-match in the late-season tournament.
Williams took the first set and was three games up when the Spaniard stopped play after 53 minutes, handing the US veteran the 47th title win of her career, and her first victory at a WTA Premier Five event since she beat Victoria Azarenka in Dubai in 2010.
Wimbledon finalist Muguruza — ranked world No. 8, 15 places ahead of Williams — had a tough semi-final against Germany’s Angelique Kerber, winning in straight sets, but falling during the closing tiebreak and injuring her ankle.
Photo: AFP
However, the 21-year-old said it was exhaustion not injury that made her pull out.
“It is a sad day, I had to retire. Sometimes your body has not recovered,” the 21-year-old said on court after the match.
Williams, who turned professional the year that Muguruza was born, was also struggling during the final with leg pain and had both of her thighs wrapped.
She had a grueling semi-final the day before against her sister’s nemesis, Roberta Vinci, and said that she would have had a tough match against Muguruza if her young opponent had been on form.
“I probably would not have had many chances if you had been feeling well,” Venus said in an on-court interview.
The title win is to put Williams back in the top 20 when the new rankings are released tomorrow, after entering Wuhan as No. 23.
The former world No. 1 was diagnosed with an autoimmune disease in 2011, and while she continued to play some tournaments, she has struggled with her health and slipped down the rankings.
Williams could now qualify for the season-ending WTA championships in Singapore, which she has not reached since 2009.
MALAYSIAN OPEN
Reuters, KUALA LUMPUR
David Ferrer advanced to his 50th career final after he and Feliciano Lopez both survived grueling semi-final encounters at the Malaysian Open yesterday to set up an all-Spanish decider.
Ferrer, the top seed, clawed his back after losing the first set to beat Germany’s Benjamin Becker 3-6, 6-2, 6-4 after the veteran Lopez won a tense shootout with Australia’s Nick Kyrgios 7-6 (7/2), 7-6 (7/5).
Ferrer, 32, has a 24-25 record in career finals and is to appear in his fourth championship match this year.
The 34-year-old Lopez, seeded second in Kuala Lumpur, fired 12 aces past Kyrgios, 14 years his junior, to advance to his second ATP final this year.
Ferrer and Lopez, close friends and Davis Cup teammates, have played each other 14 times over the past decade, with Ferrer leading 8-6 head-to-head, including their last five matches.
The last time Lopez beat Ferrer was at Shanghai in 2009.
TASHKENT OPEN
AP, TASHKENT, Uzbekistan
Nao Hibino of Japan cruised past Croatia’s Donna Vekic 6-2, 6-2 yesterday to win the Tashkent Open final.
Hibino’s speed caused problems for Vekic, who also appeared increasingly frustrated by the noisy crowd, which frequently held up play.
The 21-year-old Hibino, ranked 117th in the world, held serve throughout and took advantage of nine double faults from Vekic to break her 19-year-old opponent twice in each set.
Vekic, who is ranked 137th after a disappointing season, drops to 1-3 in career WTA finals, with her last win coming at the 2014 Malaysian Open. It was her second appearance in a Tashkent final after losing in 2012 to Irina-Camelia Begu of Romania in straight sets.
Earlier yesterday, the Russian duo of Margarita Gasparyan and Alexandra Panova won the doubles final 6-1, 3-6, 10-3 against Russia’s Vera Dushevina and Czech player Katerina Siniakova.
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