Venus William’s hopes of qualifying for the finals of the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo hit a snag as she lost to Czechoslovakian Petra Kvitova in the semi finals of the tournament early Thursday
The tightly contested match saw Kvitova eventually getting the better of the tried and tested Venus 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (2) to progress to the Pan Pacific Open final.
It did not start well for Venus with the seventh-seeded Kvitova dominating the tiebreak, jumping out to a 6-0 lead.
Williams however bounced back to win the next two points before the Czech player capitalized on her third match point.
The 33-year-old American bore all the signs of her long and tough progress to the semis: strapping on her right thigh and on her right wrist.
Little wonder, perhaps, after playing two three-setters in a row, the last of them fewer than 24 hours before.
In Kvitova, too, she faced another big-hitting woman, the 2011 Wimbledon champion could be a mirror image of the Venus of a decade ago—and they are separated by a decade in their ages.
Each broke the other in the opening games before settling into their rhythm in the windy expanse of Tokyo’s 10,000-seat stadium.
But Williams broke again in the sixth in a terrific battle of powerful ground-strokes, net attacks and, of course, big serving.
Just as in both their previous matches, this would take three sets to decide, and it now seemed inevitable that fatigue, the central component of Sjögren’s, would become a factor for Williams.
This was not only her third straight three-setter but she had played one more match than her young opponent, who enjoyed a bye in the first round.
However Williams denies the fatigue factor as having contributed to her loss.
“I was probably a little tired,” said Williams, who endured a three-hour, three-setter on Thursday. “But I don’t think it affected the match. She played two matches yesterday so no doubt was a little tired as well.”
Williams, who is currently languishing at 63rd in the world after being diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder in 2011 will have to go back to the drawing board and figure out what went wrong.
“I have put a lot into the game and I am not going to give up easily. As a professional athlete you have a window. My window is still open and I’m going to take advantage of it,” said Williams.
Williams had been bidding for her first title since winning the Luxembourg Open last October, her 44th singles title.
On the contrary Kvitova was ecstatic.
“I am really happy with how I played today.
“It was a very close match and every game was up and down,” she said.
Kvitova, who held off 11 break points, will face Germany’s Angelique Kerber in the final of the US2.3 million event.
The latter beat Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki in the other semi, having already done her campaign for Istanbul no harm at all. – News Of The South
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