Oct 05: Mirza and her partner bows out in doubles event
Tournament top-seed Venus Williams overcame Denmark's Caroline Wozniacki 6-3, 7-5 to move into the final of the $175,000 Japan Open tennis in Tokyo on Friday.
World No. 8 Williams, who is playing in this tournament for the first time outscored 17-year-old Wozniacki, who took a 4-2 lead in the second set at Ariake Colosseum.
"Being down 4-2 is not the set," said Williams after wining the match. "If you win one game, it's pretty much even so I was just concentrating on not making any errors."
After lead in two games, Wozniacki was eyeing to take the set and level the match.
"I was thinking I was closer to winning the set," said Wozniacki. "But Venus played really well, she was making great shots and really raised her game so there wasn't much I could do."
Williams pushed hard to tie the set 4-4 after trailing 2-4 down in the second set. With score leveling 4-4, Wozniacki served to take a 5-4 lead. The Wimbledon champion held her serve and then broke Wozniacki to go up 6-5 and served to win the final game.
"That was a very important point," said Wozniacki. "I saw the ball out. It could have been good, I'm not 100 percent sure so I tried not to think about it too much, but that made a big difference."
"It's been a while since I won two in a row," said Williams "I'm thinking, can I do this?
On the other hand, India's tennis sensation second seed Sania Mirza lost to Italian Flavia Pennetta, with an identical scoreline of 4-6, 4-6 in straight sets, putting no challenge against her opponent in the quarter-finals of the AIG Japan Open tennis on Thursday.
The 20-year old Hyderabadi had a good run in the tournament thus far, but she fell down at the crucial juncture, coming back straight into the tournament after a layoff due to wrist injury which she got during US Open.
Mirza committed a double-fault in the seventh game of the second set to go down 3-4 while she saved one match point in the ninth game, but Pennetta ended up on the winning side when Mirza sent a backhand return long.
Sania's doubles campaign also ended up in the event after she and her American partner Christina Fusano gave a walkover to the second seeded Chinese pair of Tiantian Sun and Zi Yan in the quarterfinals.
In the semi-final, the eighth seeded Italian Pennetta will meet fifth seeded Frenchwoman Virginie Razzano, who beat compatriot Camille Pin 6-2, 6-2.
"It's obviously not the most comfortable situation, because we are good friends, we practice together, we have the same coach, but we are professional enough to separate a friendship from playing tennis," said Mirza after the match.
"But of course you don't like to play a friend, you prefer to play someone you don't know.
"Obviously she was playing a very solid match, she wasn't making too many mistakes, she was going for it, but just on a few important points I didn't play as well as I did yesterday," added Mirza.
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