Serena Williams rebounded from her painful Wimbledon experience in typical Serena style , with a fabulous and hard-fought votary over Angelique Kerber. Meanwhile over in Washington, Canada’s Milos Raonic and Russia’s Svetlana Kuznetsova shared the spoils with wins over Vasek Pospisil and Kurumi Nara respectively.
WTA Stanford: Day 7, The Final
Serena bt Kerber: 7-6 (7-1), 6-3
What a difference a few weeks rest can make. Yes that’s right 3 weeks ago Serena Williams exited the most famous tournament in the world under a cloud of controversy, confusion and bewilderment.
But fast forward to Stanford and she’s back to doing what she does best: winning tournaments.
She didn’t however get to the best of starts in the final.
Williams somewhat out of sorts and sluggish with her groundies, allowed Kerber to race off into a 5-1 lead in double quick time.
Serena was simply not herself, not finding her range on her shots at all. But then she remembered that she is one of the best ever at mounting an unlikely comeback.
‘Re Re’ held serve to go up 5-2, but then found herself staring down 2 set points. Serena saved both off them and broke Kerber and held again to reduce the lead to 5-4.
Kerber once again crumbled due to Williams immense pressure and dropped serve once more.
Back at 5-5, Serena gladly turned on the screws and was soon wrapping up the first 7-5 after a very slow start.
Kerber was in doubt kicking herself after losing such a precious lead and things didn’t get any better for the German early on in the 2nd.
Angelique drooped serve immediately to go down 2-0 and from there ion in ,she was literally playing catch-up
Try all she did, Kerber just couldn’t break that famous serve of her illustrious rival. Eventually she relented as Serena was soon celebrating her 3rd Stanford title when she won the set 6-3.
It was a very satisfying and welcoming feeling back into the winners circle for Serena, after her recent health issues.
But she appears to be getting back on track, as she looks to her final chance of winning a Grand Slam this year at the US Open in 4 weeks time.
Congrats Serena on your 4th title of the season and the 61st overall of your legendary career.
ATP Washington: Day 7, The Final:
Milos Raonic bt Vasek Pospisil: 6-1, 6-4
* Canada’s top 2 Men’s players tugged it out in the first ever all Canadian final on the ATP Tour. In the end it was their recent Wimbledon Semi-finalist Milos Raonic who prevailed over his compatriot Vasek Pospisil in a fairly dominant straight sets win. The ATP 500 event is Raonic’s 6th career title and first since the Thailand Open last September. It was Pospisil’s first ever ATP Tour final of his career. The title sees Roanic move back up his career high ranking of 6th in the World.
WTA Washington: Day 7, The Final
Svetlana Kuznesova bt Kurumi Nara: 6–3, 4–6, 6–4
* Russian veteran and 2-time Grand Slam winner Svetlana Kuznetsova ended her long title drought, with victory in Washington. The former World No.2 hadn’t won a title on the tour since San Diego 2010, but put all that right with a hard-fought 3 set win over rising Asian talent Kurumi Nara. The win was Sveta’s 14th career crown.
All Things Tennis- from Hamza Shakeel 