Venus Williams rallies to defeat Madison Keys

If the WTA were a John Bunyan book, Zhuhai would be labeled something like the Slough of Afterthought. It’s like winning an Olympic silver medal: It’s a great accomplishment, but it’s not what you’re here for.

“I think I played really well today and did my best to just play my game and stay focused on me”, Keys said in her on-court interview, addressing the difficulty of playing an opponent in front of her home country’s crowd. Which often means that eligible players don’t want to show up.

It was the experienced Williams who came out on top, though, showing the sort of fighting spirit she has mustered so many times down the years to triumph 3-6 7-6 (7-5) 6-1 in Zhuhai.

Another injury ended Caroline Wozniacki’s season at the WTA Elite Trophy, while Venus Williams is one of three players in the last four. However, Swiss duo Timea Bacsinszky and Belinda Bencic – who would have been top-ranked at number 10 – Ana Ivanovic, Victoria Azarenka, Ekaterina Makarova and Samantha Stosur will not participate. Zheng was granted a wild-card berth.

Third seed Karolina Pliskova eased past Sara Errani 6-0, 6-3.

All of the matches take place in the Stadium, with the action starting at 7am United Kingdom time (3pm local time) with Carla Suarez Navarro v Elina Svitolina.

“She didn’t retire. She played not only for her – she played also for the fans, for me”.

Players will be split into four groups of three for the tournament, which gets underway on Monday.

As far as the rankings go, Bacsinszky’s decision not to play could be a bad one for her hopes of ending the year in the Top Ten.