TENNIS WTA FINALS – Serena Williams defeated Simona Halep in the final of the end of season tournament in Singapore 6-3, 6-0. The Romanian won against the American in the group stages, but today the World Number 1 took her revenge. It’s the fifth Masters title for Serena and her seventh of the season
Four days ago Simona Halep won against Serena Williams 6-0, 6-2 in the group stages prompting some speculation about the American’s chances of winning this end-of-year even, but after four uncertain games she took over proceedings. The World Number 1 suddenly found her form, the same form that allowed her to dominate in previous seasons, and on six occasions this season, to take her fifth WTA Finals title like Steffi Graf, only Martina Navratilova has won more Masters titles than Serena.
The match didn’t start well for the American as Halep broke serve to go 2-1 ahead, but the Romanian failed to confirm the break of serve and once Serena equalled the score there was no stopping her. Once Williams hit her stride she pounced on every weak serve or short ground stroke winning the first set 6-3 in 45 minutes.
The American continued with the same level of tennis in the second set that lasted less than 30 minutes and finished with a bagel for the Romanian.
Billy Jean King gave the trophy bearing her name to Serena who was delighted to have won this event for a fifth time, “It’s just been an unbelievable week. I just started training again last week because I had such a bad knee in Beijing. I can’t believe I even made it to Singapore, and now I have the Billie Jean King Trophy, so I’m just really excited.”
She also spoke about the match, “She was playing so well at the beginning and I told myself to just relax and once I did that I started playing better and making my shots. I lost to her a couple of days ago so I knew she was capable of playing really well, but I knew I had to play better if I wanted to win. I wasn’t even sure if I’d be able to play here and now I’ve won the Billie Jean King Trophy again, it’s an amazing feeling.”
The Romanian can be happy about her tournament even she may have regrets for her fair play in the group stages. Halep had the chance to eliminate Serena in the group stages after having beaten her, but she would have had to lose a match that had no consequence on her qualification, but it would have qualified Ana Ivanovic excluding the American. The Romanian chose to go for the win, for fair play even if she could have easily done the opposite thanks to the group stage system that really does not fit with tennis.
“Congratulations to you, Serena, you are the best,” said Halep. “Congratulations for ending the year No.1 again, too. I want to thank everybody for supporting me and watching all of our matches. It was an amazing week for me, so I am happy. I cannot be sad that I lost.”
