mtenis.com.pl

Svetlana Kuznetsova clung on to her slim hopes of reaching the semifinals of the Huajin Securities WTA Elite Trophy Zhuhai when Caroline Wozniacki retired from their round robin match on Thursday.

Watch live action from Zhuhai throughout the week on WTA Live powered by TennisTV!

Wozniacki began the match with taping on her left wrist and after a short medical timeout midway through the second set decided she could no longer continue.

Kuznetsova, who was leading 7-5, 2-2 at the time, will now hope the Dane's replacement in the tournament, Anna-Karolina Schmiedlova, can do her a favor against Roberta Vinci in the group's final match.

Having lost her own encounter with Vinci, Kuznetsova knew that anything other than a straight set triumph against Wozniacki would end her hopes of qualifying for the semifinals. However, it was her opponents that started brighter, racing into a 5-2 lead.

Unperturbed by this early setback, Kuznetsova gradually felt her way into the contest, a brilliant flicked backhand winner inspiring a break to love in the ninth game. At 5-5 she repeated the trick thanks to an even better backhand, before comfortably serving out the set.

"First of all, I didn't realize it was 5-2. I mean, I kept playing and I knew it's only one break," Kuznetsova said. "I managed to break, and then I found a better game. I think I found a better way for how to play her - I corrected some mistakes that I'd been doing and figured out why it wasn't going my way.

"Then Anastasia [Myskina] came to the court and she told me, 'Oh, it's great from 5-2.' I was like, 'Oh, really? It was 5-2?' I was just feeling great. Much better than I expected."

Wozniacki, meanwhile, was unable to hide her disappointment at seeing her tournament - and season - curtailed prematurely by another injury setback.

"It's sad, because I came here healthy," she said. "To come here and only play half a match is really disappointing. It's a long way, and I wanted to finish off the year well.

"I'm just going to take some time off and do some recovery and build up my body so I can be strong enough for next season."

Venus Williams outslugged Karolina Pliskova to win her third WTA title of the year at the Huajin Securities WTA Elite Trophy Zhuhai and make her long-awaited return to the Top 10.

The final was a hard-fought, hard-hitting affair, with Williams coming out sharper - she raced out to an early 4-1 lead - but Pliskova closing in to 4-all before Williams snuck out the opening set, 7-5.

The second set script was flipped. This time it was Pliskova who had the leads, going up 4-2 and, after Williams got the set back on serve, going up 4-2 in the ensuing tie-break. The Czech even brought up a set point at 6-5 in the breaker, ripping an inside out forehand that barely missed the sideline.

But like she's done so many times on the biggest stages all around the world, the No.1-seeded Williams lifted her game one last time to finally close out the No.3-seeded Pliskova, rifling back-to-back forehand winners - including a huge passing shot on match point - to finish her off, 7-5, 7-6(6).

"Seven weeks here in Asia and now I feel like it's my home!" Williams said afterwards. "I'm so excited to win the first trophy in Zhuhai. All the players felt so welcome here and we appreciated all of the enthusiasm. To see every seat filled for every match, that's all the players and tournament hope for.

"Also congratulations to Karolina. She deserved to win too - I was really lucky to win at the end."

"Even if I didn't make it today, it was a great week," Pliskova said. "Venus played an unbelievable match today. But I'm proud of how I played this week and hopefully we'll have more matches like this."

Williams, a seven-time Grand Slam winner and former No.1, has now had her best season in a long time, winning three WTA titles at Auckland, Wuhan and Zhuhai (the first time she's won three WTA titles in a season since 2008) and 41 matches (the most she's won in a season since 50 in 2007).

The Huajin Securities WTA Elite Trophy Zhuhai is also the 48th WTA title of Williams' career.

And last but certainly not least, Williams will now make a long-awaited return to the Top 10 on the WTA Rankings, the American's first time in the game's upper echelon in more than four and a half years.

"It's a great thing to be Top 10 now with the level of the game, but I'm still very hungry. I'm ready for more," Williams said in her presser. "I've had so many experiences in tennis that I still expect a lot from myself. So I'm very happy to be moving forward, but I also want to continue, and not stop here."

Why is Williams' return to the Top 10 on the WTA Rankings so significant? Here are seven reasons.