Venus Williams rallied from one set down to battle past this year’s US Open finalist Roberta Vinci with 5-7 6-2 7-6 (7-4) after a thrilling Dongfeng Motor Wuhan Open semifinal match avenging her younger sister Serena’s defeat against the Italian player in the US Open semifinal.
Venus qualified for her third final this year with straight set wins over Agnieszka Radwanska, Julia Georges and Carla Suarez Navarro before a hard-fought 6-4 3-6 7-5 win over British qualifier Johanna Konta. Vinci won 10 of her last 11 matches before today including three wins over top-10 players. After a three-set win over Danka Kovinic, Vinci beat Irina Camelia Begu, Petra Kvitova and Karolina Pliskova.
Venus had a 3-0 record in their head-to-head matches and won all three matches in straight sets on hard-court. In their previous match Venus beat Roberta 7-6 6-4 in Luxemburg in 2012.
Venus got off to a good start holding her serve to love in the first game before breaking serve in the second game. She saved two break back points in the third game to pull away to 3-0. In the fifth game Vinci converted her break back chance for 2-3. Vinci won five consecutive games to take the 5-3 lead.
The Italian player served for the set at 5-4 but Williams broke back to draw level to 5-5 as Vinci made four forehand unforced errors.
Vinci served for the set and went up 40-15 but she did not convert two consecutive set points. At 6-5 Vinci saved a break point before sealing the first set on the third set point. It was the first time in her career that Vinci won a set against Williams.
Williams bounced back in the second set where she broke twice in the fourth and in the sixth games to cruise to 5-1. Vinci broke serve to love for 2-5 but Williams got her third consecutive break to clinch the second set with 6-2.
Williams broke serve early in the third set to open up a 2-0 lead. Vinci broke back after Williams made two double faults. Williams pulled away to 4-1 and earned a break point chance which Vinci saved.
Williams held her serve for 5-2. Vinci broke back in the ninth game for 4-5 on her fifth break point chance. By winning four consecutive games Vinci got the chance to serve for the match at 6-5.
The Italian earned a match point at 6-5 40-30 but she sent her backhand slice into the net. After saving the match point Williams hit a couple of huge groundstrokes in the next two points to break back forcing the match to the decisive tie-break
Williams went up a mini-break twice but she was broken back both times with a forehand error and a double fault. The US legend hit a swing forehand volley to take a 6-4 lead in the tie-break to earn her first match point. Vinci hit her forehand wide to give Williams the final point. Williams has reached her first final in a Premier 5 final since Montreal 2014
Williams hit twice as many winners as Vinci with 48 to 24
“Definitely watching the match at the US Open, I learned a lot from Serena. If I could, I would give my win to Serena at the US Open. Unfortunately it doesn’t work like that”, said Venus Williams
Diego Sampaolo
