Venus Williams won the Zurich Open on Sunday for her second singles title of the season.Williams beat Italy’s Flavia Pennetta 7-6 (1), 6-2 to take the tournament she last won as a teenager in 1999.
The win should seal the 28-year-old American’s place at the season-ending WTA Tour Championship in Doha next month.
“I love the pressure,” Williams said.
“I need it in my life."
“It is great to come here and play my best tennis of the week in the final against someone who is playing as well as she is.”
Venus is being congratulated by her Dad and her dog, Herald.
Flavia Pennetta (far left), winner Venus Williams, Elmar Ledergerber the Mayor of Zurich, and tournament director Beat Ritschard (far right) pose after the Final Singles match at the Zurich Open tennis tournament.Pennetta had upset top-ranked Jelena Jankovic in the second round and went in with a 3-1 career record against Williams after beating her in Moscow last week.
“She just played unbelievable today,” the 17th-ranked Pennetta said.Williams said she would return to Florida before the Nov. 4-9 Tour finale in Qatar.
“It is tough to play against someone who serves like she did today. I didn’t have any chance to make any breaks.”
“I will go home and rest a little bit and continue to prepare and get ready for Doha,” she said.Williams is expected to climb one place to No. 8 when the new WTA rankings are published Monday; Pennetta hopes to rise three spots to a career-best 14th.
Liezel Huber (left) and Cara Black collected their 9th doubles title of the year andtheir first career Zurich trophy.
In the doubles final, Cara Black and Liezel Huber quickly bounced back to their title-winning ways when they clinched the Zurich Open yesterday.
Exactly a week after losing in the final of the Kremlin Cup in Moscow, Russia, top seeds Black and Huber were smiling again yesterday after beating home favourite Patty Schnyder and Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany in straight sets 6-1, 7-6 (7-3) in the final of the US$600 000 Tier II indoor tournament, according to reports from the Swiss capital.
This was Black and Huber’s ninth doubles title of the year.
For beating the wildcard pairing of Schnyder and Groenefeld in the final of this year’s Zurich Open, Black and Huber, will split US$30,000 which was at stake for the winners of the doubles title.
They are currently leading the Tour with 5 060 points, with more than 1 800 points over the third player (Katarina Srebotnik with 3 200 points) and with the level of tennis they have been playing these past two years, the domination of the African born duo is most likely to continue for quite some time.
(Via AP, herald.co.zw, Images via Yahoo! Sport, WTA official website)
