Venus Williams will meet Caroline Wozniacki in title clash of the WTA finals in Singapore.
Venus Williams admitted she needed one set to fathom Caroline Garcia's tactics in their first meeting for more than three years after the American edged the Frenchwoman 6-7(3), 6-2, 6-3 in their WTA Finals last-four showdown on Saturday. Caroline Wozniacki's frittered away five set points in the opening tiebreak but managed to edge out Karolina Pliskova in their semifinal encounter.
Williams and Garcia had split two matches in 2014 but Garcia has improved almost beyond recognition this season to claim back-to-back titles in China and climb to a career-high world number eight in the rankings.
"I haven't played her in a long time. It's hard to gauge what to expect, coming across the net," Williams, who will play Denmark's Caroline Wozniacki in Sunday's final.
"She's improved her game so much. Of course, I had a lot of respect for her. I think in the second and third (sets) I was able to figure it out a little more.
"She played so well. You never know when the last point is going to end and going to go your way. To see that match over, I was excited."
The 37-year-old American owns an impressive 7-0 win-loss record over Wozniacki but Williams is taking nothing for granted as she attempts to add a second WTA Finals title to her list of honours following a previous triumph in 2008.
"At this level, I think we've both improved our game. You have to improve to stay on tour. So I will see what she's doing, see what's working," Williams added.
Garcia was naturally disappointed to have lost out to Williams but keen to highlight how satisfying her season had been since opting to forego Fed Cup duties for her country to concentrate on her singles game.
"It's only a lot of positive things about this season. It's a great end of the season. A lot of things happened. I learned a lot," the 24-year-old said.
"I'm playing much better than I did at the beginning of the year but I feel like I have so much to improve. It's like it never ends. You can still work as much as you want.
"You will never reach your full potential. You have to still keep going, and that's great, actually. With this experience of the WTA Finals, I feel like I have so much more things to keep working on."
Caroline Wozniacki's joy soon turned to frustration as she had to fight hard in opening set tiebreak but she was able to recompose to win against Karolina Pliskova.
Wozniacki will contest her second final at the season-ending event after subduing the Czech 7-6(9), 6-3 to set up a showdown against an evergreen Venus Williams, who won a tight three-setter against Caroline Garcia.
"That was a pretty crazy first set. I was down 4-2 but broke back straightaway. Then we kind of went hand-in-hand and she had set points before we got to the tiebreaker," Wozniacki said.
"Then I got a good start in the tiebreaker, 6-1, and I was feeling pretty good about it," the 27-year-old added.
"Then all of a sudden it's 6-2, 6-3, 6-4, and I said 'this isn't fun anymore. Let me just try and finish this off'. At 6-all I was ready to just kill myself, basically. I was, like 'this is not fun'".
Unfortunately for Wozniacki, the see-saw nature of the set went on.
"I started thinking I should have lost this set already, so actually this is just a bonus. So I had a lot of talks with myself at that point," she said.
"So I just kept fighting. It went back and forth. Still, she had a few more set points and I managed to win that first set.
"It was very important. That broke her a little bit. I think it was important for both of us to get that first one."
Wozniacki lost to Kim Clijsters in her only other appearance in the final of the tournament in 2010 and despite losing six of seven title matches in a consistent yet frustrating season, the Dane was delighted to have one more match to play.
"I have played a lot of finals throughout my career. It's nothing new to me. I'm just going to go out there and have fun and enjoy myself," she said.
"I have played against great players this week, and it's going to be another great fight tomorrow.
"No matter what happens tomorrow, I'm very happy and proud of how I have been able to fight this week. You know, I can go on vacation feeling good about it."
(With Agency Inputs)
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