By Erik Gudris | Saturday, January 10, 2015
Venus Williams started slow but finished strong to win her 46th career title in Auckland over top seed Caroline Wozniacki.
Photo Credit: Getty Images
For Venus Williams, the new year brings a new title for the 34-year-old veteran.
Williams earned her 46th career WTA title at the ASB Classic in Auckland, New Zealand after coming from behind to defeat top seed Caroline Wozniacki.
Video: Venus and the "Ball Boys" of Auckland
Though the No. 3 seed Williams was expected to bring her trademark offense and Wozniacki her patented defense, the first set saw Wozniacki do both. As Williams began racking up unforced errors early, Wozniacki easily handled the veteran's bigger serve while moving her opponent around the court.
Wozniacki, en route to closing out the set in convincing fashion 6-2, even had more aces in her column. Three for the Dane and none for Williams.
The "dream final", as it was billed, looked more like a bad dream for Williams as she started the second set falling behind an early break. Yet, the windy conditions seemed to wear down Wozniacki who handed the break right back by sending a forehand long in the next game.
As Wozniacki's level dropped, that included more errors and double faults from her, Williams's own form got better. Though still serving at just 53%, Williams connected on more winners. Soon, she secured the set 6-3.
With the sold-out crowd evenly divided in their cheering interests, the final set proved anything but predictable. As Williams started to get on a roll by smacking winner after winner, Wozniacki started mistiming the ball even more due to the windy conditions. That included this botched service attempt early in the decider.
Even with that miscue, Wozniacki was still serving at 83%. But so was Williams whose serves were now earning her even more easy points. As Williams held onto her lead, the question was could she close it out? The final game provided the most drama of the afternoon as Wozniacki attempted to hold serve down 3-5.
Falling behind 15-40, Wozniacki saved two match points. One with a stab volley winner and then the next with a swing volley winner. Wozniacki erased a third match point against her with an ace. As Wozniacki looked to be aggressive to get out of the game, Williams appeared tentative and just willing to rally.
Williams got a fourth match point and this time her patience paid off. An extended rally that had the crowd shouting out both players names ended when Wozniacki struck a final shot into the net.
With that, Williams finally had her Auckland title 2-6, 6-3, 6-3.
Williams committed 49 unforced errors, but struck 34 winners. Wozniacki hit 18 winners and 34 unforced errors.
During the trophy ceremony, both players reminisced about a meeting in Denmark years ago when Wozniacki was a rising talent in her country.
"I had a picture of you of my phone when I was 12. You told me to stay in school. A lot of things have changed since then," Wozniacki said to Williams.
Williams, who gave a relaxed and free-flowing speech herself, remembered that meeting with the young Wozniacki.
"Caroline showed me the picture when she was 12. Me and my younger sister went to Denmark and we met and I was like 'stay in school' but I never knew you would get this good," Williams said to Wozniacki. "Congrats and I know next week you will play amazing."
During the week, Williams kept saying that during her long off-season she was striking the ball better than she had in a long time. That proved true all week in Auckland as she only dropped one set on her way to the trophy. With this first title of 2015, Williams now finds herself a player to watch for the new season that has just barely begun.