adminAfter beating Caroline Wozniacki and winning the 46th title of her career, Venus Williams believes she’s all set to have a big Australian Open next week.The 34-year-old Williams wound back the years to beat the world No 8 Dane 2-6 6-3 6-3 on Saturday and she’s skipped playing a tournament this week to continue her preparation in Melbourne.
Last year after losing to Ana Ivanovic in the final in Auckland she had a disastrous time at the first Grand Slam of the year, losing to Russian Ekaterina Makarova in the first round.
This time though she hopes that going one step further at the ASB Classic will be a good sign of things to come for her and certainly there were few deficiencies evident in her game as she stormed to victory in Auckland.
Once she got her eye in against Wozniacki she produced some wonderful attacking tennis but it did take her a while to get going.
“There has definitely been a lot to learn, even though I was able to come up with the title,” Williams said.
“I now know where I have to work on my game, so I’ll continue to to that and continue to get comfortable on the court. It was wonderful to play the five matches and actually win. It’s like I come to a tournament and want to win but when it happens it’s better, it doesn’t happen every time.
“So next week I’ll work on trying to improve my game.”
Williams will make a jump up the rankings from her position of 19 when the new list comes out later today and she can make further steps towards the top 10 at the Australian Open.
“Last year was a mess but I got better after that really,” Williams said.
I’m OK with defeat, I don’t want it but I learn from it and I get tougher from it.
“Any player who has experienced any sort of success, that’s how they see it.
“So, of course, I’m not looking to go to the Australian Open and be defeated. I want to learn from last year.”
Having one of the Williams sisters in Auckland for the ASB Classic was a big enough deal but having them both next year would be monumental.
Venus raised the subject last week and tournament director Karl Budge would like to make it happen.
“I’m optimistic enough to try to do it and it certainly wouldn’t be a small number,” Budge said.
“But why don’t we? The tournament has grown to a point where we should have these aspirations, we’re not this little brother tournament we once were.
“We are a very important lead-up tournament to the Australian Open where players are telling us it’s where they want to start the year off.
“Everyone on that women’s draw is a possibility.” — AP
Online Reporter