27th October, 2012
Serene Williams did not need to work too hard to book a place in the finals of the WTA championship in Istanbul, Turkey.
The 31 year old Williams outclassed her Polish opponent, fourth seeded Agnieszka Radwanska, beating her 6-2, 6-1.
Williams now number 3 in the world awaits the result of the second semi-final match between Victoria Azarenka and Maria Sharapova, to know her opponent in the final Sunday.
Williams’ 6-2 6-1 success against Agnieszka Radwanska, was a sequel to the close-fought Wimbledon final with the in-form Pole, but despite that there was an overwhelming sense of inevitability about it.
While Radwanska had had a record-breaking three-and-a-half hour match against Sara Errani the night before, Williams had had a rest day.
Stats showed that the underdog had already run three times as far as the former champion to get to the semi-finals.
Not surprisingly Radwanska had admitted that it would be an achievement “just to get to the court in one piece.”
Serena’s side to side ground strokes soon made it clear that she would have to cover large areas of court again – and that was something which could not be repeated for long.
Briefly Radwanska made a little progress, breaking back from an early service loss and reaching 2-2. But once Williams had punished her tired opponent’s second serve to break it again, and then consolidated by holding with a love game, it was mostly one way traffic.
When Radwanska hung on briefly by holding serve for 1-2 in the second set, it only made Williams prepare a little earlier for each stroke, tighten up her driving, and finish the match quickly with controlled aggression.
Routine though the win was, she seemed thrilled with the outcome. Waving ecstatically and fluffing up her already voluminous hair she announced that all she wanted to do now was finish the season with a win.
That will have special meaning, given that this has been a year in which she showed she has finally recovered from the horrific 12 months out during which a blood clot in her lungs threatened her life.
It has seen her win the Olympic, Wimbledon and Us Open titles, and the WTA Championships title, which she last win three years ago and first won 11 years ago would cap it off excellently.