Venus Williams beats Andrea Petkovic in an enthralling semi-final - Luxembourg Open 2012
Former world number one, Venus Williams, rallied from a set down to take out the ex-top ranked German star, Andrea Petkovic, in the semi-final of the BGL BNP Paribas Luxembourg Open on Saturday. She lost the opening set 5-7 but
did well to keep her opponent away from the victory in the following two phases, winning them with close score line of 6-4, 6-4.
It was the third head-to-head contest between the two experienced personnel. Last two were played prior to this season in 2011 where Petkovic received a retirement walkover in the Australian Open whilst lost the return match in
the AEGON International at Eastbourne. It was a tough draw for both players who have missed the bulk of the season due to niggling injuries and medical issues.
While conducting a post-match press conference, Williams said about her rival, “She's such a tough opponent - I just had to keep fighting. She was playing so well and attacking all the time, and the only thing you can do in a match
like that is just try to win more points than your opponent - that's all I tried to do.”
On the other hand, Petkovic was satisfied by her performance in the week. She said, “This was the first tournament since I came back that I felt like the old Andrea Petkovic. That's very important for me because I doubted myself
the last few weeks. I feel better about my game now; I feel like I can get back to the high level I had again.”
The contest opened up with a swap of breakpoints that were coupled with a breakthrough apiece for both players until the end of the 10th game. It looked like the tie-breaker round was to be enforced but 182nd
ranked Petkovic sneaked another breakpoint in the 12th game to round off the opening set.
Williams kept fighting for a good period of the second set and was rewarded in the ninth game with a breakpoint. She capitalized on that and enforced the final set. Both players swapped breakpoints in the beginning phase of the
final set before repeating the similar performance later. However, Williams grabbed a critical breakthrough again and won the clash. She will be facing Monica Niculescu for the final showdown.
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