Venus Wins Zhuhai, Returns to Top 10

Top-seeded Venus Williams will play against Vinci in Saturday’s semifinals, while third-seeded Karolina Pliskova faces Svitolina.

Williams found life hard in their last meeting a month ago but it was one-way traffic this time around as the victor unleashed big serves and groundstrokes to dominate.

Vinci prepared poorly for the semi-finals after being hammered 6-1 6-0 in Group D by Anna Karolina Schmiedlova, who stepped in to replace Caroline Wozniacki following her withdrawal with a hand injury on Thursday.

The top-seeded Williams scored a 7-5, 7-6 (6) victory to collect her third championship of the season following title runs in Auckland and Wuhan. “She deserved to win too-I was really lucky to win at the end”.

Williams had to fight off a resurgent Pliskova in the first set, after having her down 4-games-1 at one point, and then claw her own way back after being down a break in the 2nd set to seal the win.

“Wow, first final here – I’m very honoured to be in the first final in Zhuhai”, Williams said in her on-court interview.

Elina Svitolina completed the semi-final line-up for the WTA Elite Trophy by coming from behind to defeat Carla Suarez Navarro in three sets in Zhuhai. “I’m looking forward to it”.

“Today wasn’t an easy match”, Williams said.

And last but certainly not least, Williams will now make a long-awaited return to the Top 10 on the WTA Rankings, the American’s first time in the game’s upper echelon in more than four and a half years.