Serena Williams of the US lifts her trophy after defeating Li Na of China in the final match for the WTA Championships in Istanbul, Turkey, yesterday. Serena retained the WTA Championships title and finished the year by clinching the 11th title of the year.
ISTANBUL: Serena Williams successfully defended her WTA Championships title yesterday, beating Li Na, 2-6, 6-3, 6-0, to finish 2013 with a 78th victory and 11th title of the year.
The 32-year-old world number one from the US had admitted to feeling physically exhausted before, during and after a fraught semi-final with Jelena Jankovic on Saturday and at 3-3 in the second set yesterday, she looked in danger of a surprise defeat.
“But I had to keep going, I hung in there, and it’s amazing to win this,” said Williams.
Li, the first Chinese player to make the final of the end of season showpiece and about to become the highest-ranked Asian woman at number three in the world, made one break of serve for 2-1 in the first set with a wrong-footing backhand drive, and another for 4-1 by punishing a moderate Serena serve.
The world number one looked subdued and shackled. The emotional eruptions of her semi-final with Jankovic were nowhere to be seen or heard and her movement was leaden.
Sometimes she was forced to contain or defend, and in the first set she managed a mere five winners -- a paltry total for her. Li managed twice as many. Expectations were turned on their head.
Serena held on to her serve in the seventh game but the set was effectively gone. The second set started with a mighty battle, which resulted in Williams hanging on to her serve after almost 12 minutes of effort and eight deuces. It was a big moment.
Next game she broke Li’s serve, extracting a volleying error on break point, and advanced to 3-1, and the mood of the match began to shift. Although Li got back to 3-3 with some impressively positive driving, her serve was becoming more variable, and a double fault contributed to a lost service game which put her at 3-5.
By now Serena’s survival instincts were engaged intently. She closed out the set after another service game of several deuces, and when Li delivered her eighth double fault to lose the opening game of the final set the tide completely turned.
Li double faulted again to go 0-3 down and an encouraged Williams, with the finishing line closer, was hitting the ball better.
After the last shot she placed her forehead on the court as if in thanksgiving for redemption.
Meanwhile, Jankovic appeared to question Serena’s sportsmanship after losing a close three-set match in the semi-finals.
Serena, who claims to be exhausted near the end of a long season, reacted with fretful worrying, and sometimes distracting behaviour while struggling to a 6-4, 2-6, 6-4 two-hour win over Jankovic. It included weeping into her towel, gesticulating and arm-waving, bending over and slumping, yelling and calling out, and both moving during the rallies and conducting the game at different speeds.
“I never saw her do this when she’s leading,” Jankovic said of Serena’s go-slow moments.
“You know, every time she has a lead, she’s running for the balls and she’s hitting those big serves.
“For some reason, every time she starts losing, she starts serving slower or not running for certain balls. That’s something that as a player you have to pay attention.” AGENCIES
