Williams continues WTA winning streak
SINGAPORE (AP) — With no injuries to slow her down, Serena Williams extended her winning streak at the WTA Finals to 16 straight matches with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Ana Ivanovic on Monday.
The top-ranked Williams came into the season-ending tournament after injuries forced her out of her previous two tournaments and with the off-court distraction of disparaging comments about her from Russian tennis official Shamil Tarpischev.
Before the WTA Finals, Williams retired from the China Open and Wuhan Open because of illness and a left knee injury that had her in doubt for Singapore. But with the win over Ivanovic, she closed in on Martina Navratilova’s record of 21 straight wins at the tournament.
In the other Red Group match, Simona Halep beat Eugenie Bouchard 6-2, 6-3 in a meeting between the only two newcomers in the eight-player field.
On Tuesday in the White Group, Maria Sharapova will take on Caroline Wozniacki and Petra Kvitova will face Agnieszka Radwanska.
Dufner returns from injury at Perth
PERTH, Australia (AP) — Jason Dufner is set to return to tournament play on Thursday at the Perth International after missing nearly three months of golf in which he “totally detached” himself from the sport and didn’t watch any of the Ryder Cup on television.
Dufner, whose injury cost him any chance of earning a qualifying spot for the Ryder Cup, on Tuesday said he was feeling “much better physically … a little bit rested mentally.”
The 2013 U.S. PGA champion is among the Lake Karrinyup Country Club headliners who include fellow major winners Charl Schwartzel and Geoff Ogilvy and European Ryder Cup player Victor Dubuisson.
Dubuisson was one of the stars of the European team which won the Ryder Cup for the eighth time in 10 tournaments at Gleneagles, Scotland in late September.
“I wasn’t too interested in golf or what was going on in the golfing world during that time period,” Dufner said. “I didn’t watch one minute of the Ryder Cup. I got into a lot of different things. It was disappointing that I was injured, but it wasn’t miserable for me.”
Dufner, who was runner-up at the inaugural Perth International in 2012, said playing without pain this week would be an achievement.
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