Venus Williams gained revenge for her Wimbledon final defeat by Garbine Muguruza when the American advanced to the last four of the WTA Finals with a gutsy 7-5, 6-4 victory over the Spanish world number two on Thursday.
Both players knew a win would secure a passage to the semifinals as they held identical 1-1 records in White Group play at the season-ending event but the 37-year-old was stronger on the key points and moved brilliantly around the court to progress, Reuters reported.
Muguruza had brushed aside Williams to claim her second grand slam title in July but any hopes she had of repeating the feat were snuffed out by a resolute opponent, who simply refused to buckle in the tense Singapore Indoor Stadium encounter.
“I played an amazing opponent who has had an amazing year so I was so happy to win the last point,” Williams said in a courtside interview.
The victory enabled Williams, who won this event in 2008, to advance along with pool winner Karolina Pliskova, who won her first two matches but ended round-robin play with a 6-3 6-1 defeat by Jelena Ostapenko earlier on Thursday.
Earlier, Ostapenko ended her maiden WTA Finals campaign on a winning note with a surprisingly easy victory over a subdued Pliskova, the Latvian saving her best until last after she was eliminated earlier in the week.
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