Venus v Caroline: veterans vie for WTA Finals win

In a year in which women’s tennis has had a lot of younger players show they can stand tall on the big stages, it’s two veterans who will close the season.

Caroline Wozniacki plays Venus Williams on Sunday in the championship match of the WTA Finals in Singapore.

They are the two oldest players in the eight-woman field, even though at 27, Wozniacki is a full decade younger than 37-year-old Williams.

With Serena Williams off the tour for much of the season, younger players have stepped into the breach, including Jelena Ostapenko and Sloane Stephens, who both won their first Grand Slam titless.

For Wozniacki, winning this match requires getting over two hurdles.

She has only one one title this year from seven previous finals and she has lost all seven matches to Williams in the past.

Wozniacki is under no illusions about how hard it will be to change that.

“I have had tough match-ups against her in the past, but I haven’t played her in a while. You know, she’s obviously a great champion and a great player,” Wozniacki said.

“It would be really tough. She’s had a great year. She hasn’t played many tournaments, but the tournaments that she’s played she’s done really well in.

“I have played against great players this week, and it’s going to be another great fight tomorrow.”

In Wozniacki’s favour though is that she is great form, especially on serve.

She has won three sets to love in different matches throughout the week.

Williams has been a crowd favourite in Singapore and has powered through two intensely long matches.

Her first-up victory over Ostapenko took three hours and 13 minutes, making it the second-longest match in the history of the WTA Finals while they have been in Singapore.

And her semifinal win against Caroline Garcia on Saturday didn’t quite go for that long, but was still lengthy at 2 hours and 29 minutes.

Although they have played seven times, they haven’t since meeting in Miami in 2015.

Williams said it has been so long that all those previous meetings won’t have much bearing on Sunday’s encounter.

“At this level I think we’ve both improved our game,” Williams said.

“You have to to stay on tour. So I will see what she’s doing, see what’s working.”