Venus Williams has prevailed over Jelena Ostapenko 7-5 6-7 (7-3) 7-5 in one of the longest three-set matches ever at the WTA Finals.
It took her 3 hours and 13 minutes to finish the job on Tuesday, making it the second-longest match at the finals in Singapore and the third-longest at the finals overall.
The only ones longer were a 3 hour and 29 minute match between Agnieszka Radwanska and Sara Errani in Turkey in 2012, and an encounter between Caroline Wozniacki and Maria Sharapova here in 2014 that lasted 3 hours and 14 minutes.
The competitors broke each other’s serve on a total of 20 occasions and many other games went to multiple deuce points.
The match was a see-saw battle from the beginning.
Ostapenko was at one stage leading 5-4 and serving for the first set, but a powerful Williams effort in the 10th game held her opponent to love and levelled it up.
The American then won the next two games to take the set, with an unforced error count of 17-8 against Ostapenko.
Williams broke Ostapenko’s serve early in the second set on the fourth advantage point, but the Latvian broke back immediately, winning the next two games.
The roller-coaster nature of the contest continued, with Williams levelling the set at 3-3 to get back on track, and then blowing a match point two games later.
The set went to a tiebreak, which quickly turned sour for Williams.
She failed to win a point on serve as she double-faulted and launched an ill-advised challenge, going down in the tiebreak 7-3.
Ostapenko is the WTA’s tour leader for three-set matches, and she headed into her 27th deciding set of the season.
Williams broke Ostapenko’s serve in the fifth game of the final set, but Ostapenko levelled it at 4-4 then came back again from 0-40 down in the next game.
But Williams eventually held on for an exceptionally gritty victory.
Tuesday’s late match features Spaniard Garbine Muguruza playing Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic.
With Williams’ victory, Muguruza will qualify for the semi-finals automatically if she beats Pliskova.
