WTA总决赛李娜遭小威逆转 屈居亚军

Serena Williams had a chance to cap off a season to remember by capturing her fourth WTA Championship title with a win over Li Na on Sunday. The 32-year-old American has been dominant all year, winning the French and U.S. Opens and was looking to scoop up her 11th title of 2013 with a win over China's best.

Li Na’s run to her first ever WTA Championship final helped her move up into the world number three spot - a career high ranking. But standing in her way of the title in Istanbul was the imposing figure of Serena Williams.

The Chinese player got off to a great start, breaking Williams’ serve twice in the first set. Williams had been complaining of tiredness after her semi final and Li’s energetic approach paid dividends. Li took the first set 6-2.

And it appeared a surprise might be on the cards as she continued to get the better of the opening skirmishes of the second set.
But Williams successfully staved off another two break points - after nine deuces - and did not look back from there. The American took the second set 6-3 and Li’s resistance began to crumble.

Williams showed little sign of the fatigue she complained about a day earlier, flattening Li in the third set with her brutal power and on court coverage. The 32-year old would take the third 6-love for her 78th win in her 82 matches this year. Williams finishes the season as the top ranked player for the third time in her career after 2002 and 2009.

"It’s very cool to be victorious here twice. I’m really excited about that. It means a lot. It’s the end of the year Championships, it’s only the elite eight that get to play and you have to be the very best in the whole world for that year and let me tell you, it’s not easy." Serena said.

"Yes I mean top three was my goal for this year. I was really happy in the end. I talked to my team, and we said "at least we did what we said" so we made it." Li said.

And while Li came up short in the women’s singles, in the doubles, the cross-straight duo of Peng Shuai and Hsieh Su-Wei capped off their great season by defeating the Russian pair of Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina 6-4, 7-5 to win the title. They become the first Chinese pair to win a WTA Championships title as they win their ninth WTA doubles title as a duo - and their fifth this year.