Riske faces Williams at Stanford ATP event
STANFORD, Calif. – Peters Township native Alison Riske went a decade without playing a match against longtime star Venus Williams on the ATP Tour in singles play.
That all changed earlier this year when the 36-year-old Williams, ranked seventh in the world, defeated the 26-year-old Riske in the round of 32 at Charleston, 6-4, 6-2.
Riske, currently ranked 78th in the world, got a second shot at Williams Saturday night, meeting her in the semifinals of the Bank of West Classic. The match ended too late to be included in this edition.
Williams, the top seed in the tournament, beat 17-year-old wild-card entry CiCi Bellis 6-4, 6-1 late Friday night.
Riske led No. 4 seed CoCo Vandeweghe, 6-3, 0-1 before Vandeweghe retired because of injury from the match to send Riske on to the semifinals. Vandeweghe, ranked 35th in the world, was taken from the court in a wheelchair.
Williams won the last of her 49 singles titles in Taiwan in February. She won the Stanford event in 2000 and 2002.
Second-seeded Dominika Cibulkova of Slovakia and third-seeded Johanna Konta of Britain also advanced.
Riske has already won $260,000 this year, bringing her career winnings to $1.8 million.
She advanced to the quarterfinals with an impressive comeback win against Romania’s Ana Bogdan.
Bogdan grabbed a quick 5-0 lead in the first set before Riske stormed back to win, 3-6, 6-2, 6-4.
Earlier, Riske beat No. 8 seed Vavara Lepchenko, winning five-straight games in the second set to take a 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 win against the world’s 52nd-ranked player.