Roberta Vinci continued her impressive end-of-season. The Italian player followed up her sensational win over Serena Williams in the US Open semifinal to reach the final of the US Open with another impressive 7-6 (7-3) 6-2 win over world number 4 and third seeded player Petra Kvitova at the Dongfeng Motor Wuhan Open.
Defending champion Kvitova cruised to a 4-0 lead in the opening set with a series of winners. World Number 18 Vinci broke serve for 1-4 before saving two break point chances in the next game. Vinci held her serve before drawing level to 4-4 by winning her fourth consecutive game. The first set came down to the tie-break, which Vinci got a mini-break for 4-3 en route to clinching the opening set with 7-3.
The second set went on serve until 2-2. After saving two break points Vinci hit a backhand down the line to get the break. The Italian star got the double break to seal the win with 6-2. Before today Vinci had beaten just three top five players.
Vinci has reached the quarter final in a Premier 5 tournament for the fourth time in her career.
“Against Petra it’s always tough to play. She is an incredible player. She won here last year but I played a really good match. She played so well in the first few games, but I tried not to think about this and focus”, said Vinci.
Vinci will play against either Karolina Pliskova or Elina Svitolina in the quarter finals.
Garbine Muguruza fought back from a set down to beat last week’s Tokyo semifinalist Ana Ivanovic with 4-6 6-1 6-0 to reach the quarter finals.
After a trade of breaks both players went on serve until the 10th game when Ivanovic broke serve to take the first set with 6-4. Muguruza recovered by reeling off 12 of her next 13 games to sweep aside Ivanovic
“I was expecting a difficult match. In the first set Ana was playing good. I was playing good also. In the important moments I didn’t find my best level. In the second and the third I found my way and my tennis level was great. I am very happy with my improvement through in the match”, said Muguruza.
Muguruza, who lost the Wimbledon final against Serena Williams, is currently ranked 11th on the Road to Singapore with 2928 points, has still the chance to qualify for the end-of-season tournament as she is just 32 points behind Carla Suarez Navarro, who is currently ranked 8th. The race to qualify for Singapore is still wide open.
“I have no idea. I don’t know how is it going. I don’t know how much the difference is. If I go, it’s going to be great. If not, it’s also going to be good. I am not going to be that obsessed with Singapore. I am doing well. Definitely, I am trying to go, but I just want to stay calm”, continued Muguruza
Venus Williams cruised to the quarterfinals by beating Carla Suarez Navarro 6-3 6-4, one day after winning her 700th match on tour. Venus fired five aces and fended off three of four break point chances to improve to 3-3 in her head-to-head matches against Suarez Navarro.
Venus dropped her serve only once at the start of the match, but then she took control of the match. The US legend faced a break point in the sixth game of the second set, but Suarez Navarro committed three backhand errors. Venus managed to hold her serve before closing out the set on her first match point.
“I am not sure if it’s my lucky number. That’s 11 but it’s pretty amazing to reach 700 wins. I am happy to finally be playing in Wuhan and performing so well here”, said Venus Williams.
Venus, who beat Agnieszka Radwanska in the first round, has already defeated six top-10 players this season.
