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WTA Finals 2014: Serena Williams outwits Caroline Wozniacki to secure final date with Simona Halep

Serena trumped her friend Wozniacki, 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (8/6), in the semi-finals after a hard-fought contest.

Updated: October 25, 2014 11:22 PM IST

By AFP

WTA Finals 2014: Serena Williams outwits Caroline Wozniacki to secure final date with Simona Halep

Singapore, Oct 25: Racquet-smashing Serena Williams fought back from a set down to beat Caroline Wozniacki on Saturday and set up a chance for revenge against Simona Halep in the WTA Finals title match. The two-time defending champion started poorly but after her racquet paid the price, she dominated the second set and emerged victorious from a tense deciding tie-breaker to win it 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (8/6).

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The 18-time Grand Slam-winner, seeking her third straight victory at the end-of-season championship, will play Halep in Sunday’s final — four days after her humiliating 6-0, 6-2 loss to the Romanian. Halep continued her brilliant run in Singapore with a 6-2, 6-2 dismantling of Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska as the Singapore tournament’s surprise package made it to the final on debut.

The diminutive world number four, backed by a phalanx of noisy Romanian fans, belted 26 winners against just four conceded as she broke Radwanska five times to win in 68 minutes. Williams, 33, said she would start out with “low goals” against Halep, after winning just two games in their group match — her worst performance since she was 16.

“I’m excited. My goal is to win three games. That’ll be my first goal. I’m going to go from there,” joked Williams. “Hopefully I can hold serve. That would be good. Most of all, I hope to break once.” While Halep cruised, Williams’ fourth win over Wozniacki this year, including the US Open final, was tough and it was the third time this season that she has been pushed to three sets by the resurgent Dane.

The American pushed “reset” after the first set but when Wozniacki brilliantly saved a match point in the third, Williams needed a net cord to get into the third-set tie-breaker after slipping to 1-4 down.

“I hate to lose a match when I have match point. It’s hard to sleep. It’s hard to function,” she said. “I thought, ‘Oh my God. She couldn’t play any better. Then I hit the net cord and I was almost upset on it,” Williams added. “I was like, ‘Why couldn’t you have done that on match point?'”

Mariah Carey

The players are close and they sang along to “We Belong Together” at a Mariah Carey concert on Friday, but friendship was put on one side as a grim-faced Williams strode into Singapore’s Indoor Stadium. But the American was broken in her first service game and despite finding her range with her serve, in the rallies she struggled with Wozniacki’s placement and court craft.

The pressure exploded when Williams furiously pummelled her racquet into the floor after losing the seventh game to love to go 2-5 down, earning her a warning from the chair umpire. The reigning champion was broken again as Wozniacki took the first set 6-2, but Williams returned fired up and she shrieked and bellowed her way to a love hold at the start of the second.

And the tables turned in her favour when she got a break for 3-2, her first lead of the match, and then levelled proceedings at one set each when Wozniacki double-faulted on set point. Wozniacki won a 26-shot rally to fend off a break point in game four of an increasingly tense deciding set, which crept up to 4-4 before the Dane broke to go ahead.

But with Wozniacki serving for the match, Williams found another gear and she broke back for 5-5 with an overhead, celebrating with a raised fist. There was incredible drama when Wozniacki, serving to stay in the match, survived a match point with two consecutive volleys to force the third-set tie-break. Williams double-faulted to put Wozniacki 3-1 up but after the helpful net cord, the American reeled off five consecutive points to set up two more match points.

Wozniacki escaped both but when Williams brought up her fourth match point, the Dane’s luck ran out when she swept a forehand wide.

“It clicked today. I thought, ‘Ha! I got you now.’ Not in particular to her (Wozniacki), but in particular what to do against Serena,” Williams said, in what could be an ominous sign for Halep. But Wozniacki, who was unbeaten in round robin play, had a very different perspective after ending her season with a 10th defeat in 11 matches against Williams.

“This really sucks. You know, being so close and still losing, it really sucks,” said the eighth seed.

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