Venus Williams beats Roberta Vinci, reaches WTA Elite Trophy final

Top seed Venus Williams stormed past US Open finalist Roberta Vinci 6-2, 6-2 in the WTA Elite Trophy semis on Saturday in an ominous display as she seeks her third title of the year.

The seven-time Grand Slam-winner did not hang around at the purpose-built arena in Zhuhai, southern China with six breaks of serve as she wrapped it up in 65 minutes.

Venus, 35, who is resurgent after a long battle with auto-immune disease Sjogren’s Syndrome, collected her 40th main draw win of the season — her highest tally since 2008.

The victory will also have been cheered by Venus’ younger sister Serena, whose shock defeat to Vinci in the US Open semis halted her bid for a rare calendar-year Grand Slam.

Venus also beat Vinci in the semifinals en route to her 47th career title at last month’s Wuhan Open, in what has been a fruitful end-of-year swing for the veteran.

She will will face Karolina Pliskova in Sunday’s final after the third-seeded Czech beat eighth-seeded Elina Svitolina 6-3, 6-1. Venus has not collected three titles in a season since 2008, the year she last won a Grand Slam tournament when she triumphed for a fifth time at Wimbledon.

“Today wasn’t an easy match,” Venus said. “Every game was really well-contested and she never gave me any points. She's had a great year; I felt like I really earned it today.

“China’s been good to me this year,” she added. “I played well in Wuhan, and now another final here in Zhuhai, and I hope I can win one more match.”

The WTA Elite Trophy is a new event with a field of 12 and intended as a second-tier version of the WTA Finals, which is played between the top eight and was won last week by Agnieszka Radwanska.