Serena Williams edged Simona Halep with 6-2 4-6 7-5 in the re-match of last year’s WTA Championships after two hours and 7 minutes in the second semifinal. The seven-time Miami champion will face Carla Suarez Navarro who overcame Andrea Petkovic 6-3 6-3. The Spanish player has reached her first ever final at Premier Mandatory level of the Miami Open to get through the biggest win of her career and to reach the top-10 in the WTA Ranking and to Number 4 in the Road to Singapore. Diego Sampaolo
Serena Williams and Simona Halep met for the first time since their two matches played at last October’s WTA Championships Final. Halep won the round-robin match with 6-0 6-2. Williams bounced back a few days later winning the title with 6-3 6-0. They were set to face off in the Indian Wells semifinal last month but Williams was forced to withdraw because of a knee injury.
“I made so many errors and I was like: “Serena, just come to the net at this point, because that’s the only thing that was working for me. I am just really happy to get through that. It was actually fun match and I was able to come out and play here tonight”, said Williams.
Andrea Petkovic saved three break points to hold her serve in the first game which featured 16 points Suarez Navarro, who played her first ever Permier Mandatory level semifinal, broke serve early in the opening set and and got the double break when Petkovic sent her forehand wide to close out the first set with 6-3 after 42 minutes. Petkovic made 15 unforced errors and hit just one winner in the first set. She did not earn a single break point.
The Spanish player broke serve in the sixth game of the second set to open up a 4-2 lead when Petkovic hit her forehand into the net and did not look back holding her serve to clinch the win with 6-3.
Suarez Navarro has become the first Spanish player to reach the top-10 since Aranxta Sanchez Vicario in 2001 The other Spanish player who reached the top-10 was Conchita Martinez.
Suarez was very solid on her serve and never faced a single break point and dropped just 13 points in her nine service games. Petkovic made 33 unforced errors and hit 9 winners.
The Spanish player beat Petkovic for the third time in their five matches. She was forced to withdraw from their previous head-to-head match at the Antwerp final last February.
