Venus eyes 44th career title in Luxembourg
Date published :
20 Oct 2012 - 23:47:24
American veteran Venus Williams targets a 44th career title on Sunday when she faces unheralded Romanian Monica Niculescu in the Luxembourg Open final.
Williams reached the 71st final of her career with a 5-7, 6-4, 6-4 win over Germany's Andrea Petkovic in her semi-final on Saturday.
"She's such a tough opponent - I just had to keep fighting," Williams said.
"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, just keep coming back, coming back, and winning more points."
While Niculescu has an 0-1 career record in WTA finals, Williams is at 43-27 -- sister Serena is the only active player with more WTA titles with 45.
"It's great to be in the final, but I'm more focused on just winning the match, so I can win the tournament," Venus Williams said. "I don't want to stop."
Williams and Niculescu will be playing each other for the first time.
Niculescu, who was runner-up in 2011, made the final by seeing off Daniela Hantuchova of Slovakia 6-1, 6-3.
