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Tennis number 1 Serena Williams reached her 700th WTA win at the Miami Open on Wednesday.
She is the second player who reached an important career mileston in as many days at the Florida tournament. She was offered a giant, brightly-colored cake, one day after Andy Murray reached 500 wins the day before.
World No. 1 Williams was in big trouble and seemed to be heading towards a surprising defeat against Sabine Lisicki, from Germany. Serena lost six straight games in the second set, after having won a tight opener.
The American managed to gather her strength and won against the 21st-ranked German 7-6 1-6 6-3 in a two hours long match.
“I had no idea about the milestone. I saw them bringing out a cake and I thought, ‘Whose birthday is it today?’ But I really had no idea”, said Williams, who last year won her seventh Miami title. She has raked in more than $65 million in prize money in her great career, winning a staggering 19-time grand slam tournaments.
Serena has not lost a single match in 2015 and she is the reigning Australian and U.S. Open champion. Even tough she got to 700 victories, the all-time record is almost impossible to beat. Martina Navratilova has 1,442 match wins — which is a record in both the men’s and women’s game.
In Thursday’s second semifinal, Serena Williams will play against world No. 3 Simona Halep, who the last player to win against her in October last year, in Singapore. Halep became the first Romanian to get a win against the WTA leader, triumphing in their group match at the WTA Finals. Williams got her revenge in the title match in Singapore.
Halep and Williams were supposed to meet again two weeks ago at Indian Wells, but Williams retired before that semifinal due to a knee injury.
“I’ll remember defeating her all my life because it was such a great match for me,” said Halep. The Romanian won her last match in Miami against young American Sloane Stephens. ” I just have to go out there and believe I have a chance. I have to believe I can win again against her. I have nothing to lose. Serena is the best player in the world”, added the 23-year old.
The winner of their semifinal will play for the trophy against either Spanish No. 12 Carla Suarez-Navarro or German ninth seed Andrea Petkovic.
Image Source: Miami Open
