DOHA: Defending champion Venus Williams and sister Serena will clash for the 23rd time in their careers on Sunday in the final of the $4.55 million WTA Championships.
Venus, the world No. 7, defeated Serbia’s Jelena Jankovic 5-7, 6-3, 6-4 in her semifinal while 2001 champion Serena, the new world No. 1, reached the final when Caroline Wozniacki was forced to retire.
Danish teenager Wozniacki, who came into the tournament carrying a left thigh strain and who had struggled with cramps in the round-robin stage, was 4-6, 1-0 when a stomach strain forced to her to quit.
Serena and Venus, who are also playing doubles here, will be far from fresh for the final.
Serena played her semifinal with a tightly bandaged left thigh — as did Wozniakci — while Venus needed treatment on her sore left knee in the first set of her clash against Jankovic.
With fitness worries on her mind, Serena earlier on Saturday pulled out of next weekend’s Fed Cup final between the US and Italy.
For the 29-year-old Venus, it’s been a remarkable year.
She only squeezed into the last four having lost two of her three group games and arrived in the semi-finals having spent five hours more on court than her Serbian opponent.
She was also forced into a fourth successive three-setter.The American, who dropped an early break, recovered to 3-3 in the opener before Jankovic broke in the 11th game to lay the foundation for the first set.
Williams grabbed the only break of the second set in the sixth game, but was quickly down 2-0 in the decider before leveling immediately.
Jankovic, who was defeated by Williams in the semi-finals in 2008, should have been the fresher of the two women having made the semifinals when Dinara Safina limped away after just two games, before she defeated a clearly unfit Wozniacki.
But despite reclaiming the break in the sixth game, she then handed it back to allow the tenacious Williams to lead 4-3.
The American went to match point in the 10th game and clinched the win courtesy of a fortunate net cord.
