Venus Williams cruised to the semifinals of the Honk Kong Open with a 6-1 6-1 in just one hour over Alizé Cornet, who had beaten Venus’younger sister Serena in their last three head-to-head matches including at Wimbledon in 2014. Williams has won 13 of her last 15 matches boosting her chance to qualify for the WTA Finals in Singapore.
Venus Williams, who recently won in Wuhan, extended her winning streak to 5-0 in her head-to-head matches against the French player without dropping a set. In the semifinal she will face the winner of the match between number 4 seed Jelena Jankovic who brushed aside Daria Gavrilova with 6-1 6-1 in the fourth quarter final.
If Venus reaches the final in Honk Kong, she will move up from 11th to the top-8 in the Road to Singapore ranking.
“It is never easy. We had some tough games I was able to win. Those hard games helped me keep the momentum and confidence on my side. Since the first match I have been feeling more and more confident, just trying to keep playing my game, aggressive and hitting big”, said Williams
Angelique Kerber converted six of her 17 break point chances to overcome Caroline Garcia in a tight match with 7-5 6-3 in one hour and 57 minutes setting up a semifinal against Samantha Stosur who rallied from 4-6 1-3 down by reeling eleven consecutive games to beat Heather Watson 4-6 6-3 6-0.
Stosur leads 3-2 in her head-to-head matches against Kerber. Last May the Australian player beat Kerber 4-6 6-3 6-3 in Madrid but the German won their last two hard-court matches. Kerber clinched 8 of her last 10 matches and reached the semifinals in Wuhan
“From a set and 3-1 down I really picked it up. I really didn’t feel like I was playing badly until that point, but something clicked from there and I started playing extremely well. ”, said Stosur
