PETE ZIEBRON
Venus Williams seeks to continue climbing up the WTA rankings. Pete Ziebron Images
Venus Williams stormed through a draw featuring most of the best players on the WTA tour and wrapped up her 45th career title this weekend in Dubai defeating Alize Cornet of France 6-3 6-0. Williams, the 2009 & 2010 Champion in Dubai needed a wild card into the main draw as even world #19 Genie Bouchard of Canada found herself outside of the main draw as the #1 seed in the qualifying draw of the tournament.
The victory for Williams was her first on the WTA circuit since the Luxembourg Open in October 2012. "I'm looking to improve and be a better, smarter Venus. I think obviously this week is a step. Every week for me is a step" Williams shared following her win in the Dubai final.
Venus Williams started the 2014 campaign in Auckland where she got to the final, losing a tight 3 set match to Ana Ivanovic. Venus would get her revenge against Ivanovic in the 2nd round in Dubai, yielding only 3 games in the process. In fact, Williams dropped only 24 games in 5 matches against several top players.
1st d. #33 Elena Vesnina (RUS) 6-3 6-2
2nd d. #12 Ana Ivanovic (SRB) 6-2 6-1
QF d. #22 (Q) Flavia Pennetta (ITA) 6-3 7-5
SF d. #11 (8) Caroline Wozniacki (DEN) 6-3 6-2
F d. #26 Alize Cornet (FRA) 6-3 6-0
The main draw was so loaded that the 8th seed was world #11 Caroline Wozniacki. Meanwhile, the 4 ladies that were fortunate to advance through 3 rounds of qualifying had an enormous task on their hands as they were going to draw either: 2011 US Open Champion Samantha Stosur, former world #1 Jelena Jankovic, 2013 Wimbledon semifinalist Kirsten Flipkens or world #25 Kaia Kanepi.
Ironically, Serena Williams was also in the main draw as the tournament's #1 seed. Serena also accepted a wild card into the tournament as it was widely expected that she would oppose Venus in the final once the sisters both reached the semifinals. However, Alize Cornet had other ideas and upset Serena 6-4 6-4.
Rarely do the Williams sisters play the same tournament outside of the majors and they took advantage of their scheduling to also enter the doubles event in Dubai. Surprisingly, they lost in their first round match to Russians Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina 4-6 6-4 4-10. In a strange twist, Serena defeated Makarova in the 2nd round of the singles draw and Venus dispatched Vesnina in the 1st round of the singles tournament.
Venus Williams was happy with her progress in winning all 5 matches in convincing fashion and she elaborated on what she was able to extract from this week going forward into 2014: "I think just a lot of match toughness, mental toughness. When things got tough, I definitely got going this week. If I was down break point, when push came to shove, I was pushing and shoving. But I think that I just improved so much. I'm just playing bigger points and converting. That's what I needed to be able to do."
With the win, Williams improved her ranking from world #44 to #29. She has not reached the quarterfinals of a major since 2010 when she got to the semis at the US Open as well as the quarters at both Wimbledon and the Australian Open. "Winning all those Grand Slam titles and playing deep and getting to the final so many times, I mean, those are amazing accomplishments. It takes a lot of nerve, takes a lot of, you know, mental prowess, so I'd like to think I'm on that path." Perhaps Venus will be able to continue to climb in the rankings and compete for majors this year.
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