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V.Williams wins WTA Elite Trophy Zhuhai title

Xinhua, November 8, 2015 Adjust font size:

Venus Williams edged WTA rising star Karolina Pliskova 7-5, 7-6(6) in the women's singles final to win the WTA Elite Trophy Zhuhai on Sunday and the former world No. 1 will move back into the Top 10.

   The final was hard-fought and hard-hitting, with Williams coming out sharper -- she raced out to an early 4-1 lead in the opening set, but Pliskova closing in to 4-all before Williams took the set at 7-5.

   In the second set, Williams and Pliskova had a break each before going up to 6-all. Williams lifted her game above normal level in the tiebreak, including a huge passing shot on match point before taking the tiebreak and the final victory.

   "Seven weeks here in Asia and now I feel like it's my home!" Williams said afterwards. "I'm so excited to win the first trophy in Zhuhai. All the players felt so welcome here and we appreciated all of the enthusiasm. To see every seat filled for every match, that's all the players and tournament hope for."

   "Even if I didn't make it today, it was a great week," Pliskova said. "Venus played an unbelievable match today. But I'm proud of how I played this week and hopefully we'll have more matches like this."

   The Zhuhai title is also the 48th WTA title of Williams' career and Williams will now make a long-awaited return to the Top 10 on the WTA rankings, the American's first time in the game's upper echelon in more than four and a half years.

   "It's a great thing to be Top 10 now with the level of the game, but I'm still very hungry. I'm ready for more," Williams said. "I've had so many experiences in tennis that I still expect a lot from myself. So I'm very happy to be moving forward, but I also want to continue, and not stop here."

   In women's doubles final, Liang Chen/Wang Yafan of China beat Anabel Medina Garrigues/Arantxa Parra Santonja of Spain 6-4, 6-3 for the title.  Endi