Serena Williams lifts her 43rd WTA title by dumping Coco Vandeweghe – Bank of the West Classic 2012
American powerhouse, Serena Williams, showed no mercy to her fellow compatriot, Coco Vandeweghe, in the final of Bank of the West Classic tournament on Sunday’s eve. The fourth ranked superstar belted a 7-5, 6-3, victory in one hour and 27 minutes to lift her 4th WTA (Women’s Tennis Association) championship title of the running season.
It was the first ever encounter between these two contenders and Williams had no troubles in ending the sublime run of the 20-year-old in Stanford, USA. Her triumph awarded Williams her 43rd career title, equalling the number with her elder sister Venus Williams.
Vandeweghe has been the real surprise package in the tournament and had beaten all the odds to reach her first WTA International Tour final against the reigning world number four. She lost in the qualifiers but entered the main draw of the tournament as a ‘lucky loser’, stunning a number of superior ranked opponents en route to the final. She outplayed the former world number one, Jelena Jankovic in the second round and registered a hard fought victory over the fifth seeded Belgian number one, Yanina Wickmayer in the semis. Her magic didn’t work against the brilliance of Williams, who carried on with her winning impetus from the Wimbledon Championships to claim yet another title.
"Serena's a great player and will take advantage of every opportunity she gets," said Vandeweghe, "I served pretty well all week and against Serena too, but she won't let me get away with a second serve on set point. I fought hard to get back in the game after that, but in the end it didn't go my way. But I still tried to stay with her in the second set."
William’s fiery serve included nine aces and she clinched 34 out of 42 first serve points to get the better of her opponent. The top seeded American stung four out of nine break points, whilst Vandeweghe could come up with merely two serve breaks to finish on the losing side in the end. The 20-year-oild lucky loser posed some serious resistance in the opening set of the match and even had a set point at 5-4 but it was the sheer brilliance of Williams which restrained her from claiming the vital point in the end.
"I just really wanted to win that game," Williams said of the 5-4 game. "I was up in that game and had so many break points, but she played well on them and I was making some errors. And then she even had a set point. But I just hung in there and tried to do the best I could, and thankfully I won that first set.”
Williams now sets her eyes on Olympic glory and with her current form, it appears that she will have no difficulties in bagging gold at the most elite platform in the sports world.
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