Venus Williams battles to Elite Trophy victory in China

Venus Williams claimed the WTA Elite Trophy with a battling victory against Karolina Pliskova in Zhuhai, China on Sunday to secure a return to the top 10.

The top-seeded American beat her third-seeded Czech opponent 7-5 7-6 (8/6) for a third WTA title of the year, adding to those won in Auckland and Wuhan.

Williams is up from 11th to seventh in the world, coming back to the top 10 for the first time in over four-and-a-half years.

And, quoted on www.wtatennis.com, the 35-year-old former world number one and seven-time singles major winner said: “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.”

Pliskova said: “Even if I didn’t make it today, it was a great week.

“Venus played an unbelievable match. But I’m proud of how I played this week and hopefully we’ll have more matches like this.”