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HONG KONG: American superstar Venus Williams fired a warning shot
ahead of the Australian Open Saturday, crushing one of her main
rivals, Maria Sharapova, in Hong Kong with a ruthless display of
power tennis.
Williams was unremitting in her onslaught
against the Russian world number four, clinching a straight sets
victory of 6-4, 6-3 in just 80 minutes.
Despite occasionally reaching for the hamstring
she twinged in Friday’s victory over Russian Elena Dementieva, the
Wimbledon champion smashed a string of aces and her speed round the
court proved it was no serious hindrance.
An attritional first set hinged on just two
points, after the first nine games had gone with serve.
Williams clinched the break on a unusually long
rally in the 10th game, forcing Sharapova to hit a backhand into the
net. She then forced another mistake on break point to take the set.
Sharapova seemed unable to cope with the depth
of Williams’s ground strokes and despite several attempts to smash
her way back into the game had to submit after losing her serve in
the sixth game of the second set.
The Russian saved two championship points when
5-2 down, but Williams rapped up the game appropriately enough with
a heavy serve, setting up an easy forehand winner.
“Venus must be one of the few who can arrive
the day before the tournament and end up winning,” said Sharapova
after the game.
The four-day Hong Kong invitational featured
five of the world’s top 10 players and is used as a warm up for
the first Grand Slam of the year in Melbourne in a few weeks.
-- AFP
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