It was much tougher than she had bargained for but Venus Williams got the job done in the end, beating Russian Maria Kirilenko 6-3, 1-6, 6-4 in Sunday’s final of the WTA Korea Open in Seoul. It was the third singles title in 2007 for Williams, the reigning Wimbledon champion who was top seed here.
Forced to three sets for the first time in the tournament, she outlasted a resilient Kirilenko in a game that lasted two hours and 21 minutes, by far the longest one for either player.
Serving for the match at 5-4 up in the third set, Williams went down 0-40, and rallied to force deuce. She took the championship when Kirilenko’s return went just out of the sideline to Williams’ left.
Light rain delayed the match by about an hour, and when it began, Williams wasted little time in breaking Kirilenko’s serve in the opening game.
The Russian appeared over-matched early on, but a series of unforced errors by the American allowed Kirilenko to tie things up 2-2. Overall the two broke each other’s serve six times in a first set which Williams eventually won 6-3.
Williams won the first game in the second set but Kirilenko then profited from unforced errors and broke two serves to win 6-1 — the first set she has won against Williams.
In the third the Russian appeared to edge ahead by going up 3-2 on an ace. But Williams survived a gruelling sixth game to tie things up before breaking Kirilenko’s serve to go into the lead and holding her own to go 5-3 up.
Kirilenko fought back, winning her own serve game to close the gap, but in the end it was not enough to win her second straight WTA even after Kolkata, India, last Sunday. – AFP
