World No. 7 Elina Svitolina has booked a place in the semifinals of the 2018 WTA Finals after defeating Karolina Pliskova. On the same evening, Caroline Wozniacki won her first game of the tournament after handing Petra Kvitova her second consecutive defeat in Singapore.
Svitolina defeated Pliskova 6-3, 2-6, 6-3 to herself through to the final four in the Lion City for the first time in her career. The reigning Italian Open champion started off strong and fought well to keep Pliskova at bay.
In the very third game of the first set, Svitolina had to save no less than six break points to protect her serve. Her sheer perseverance eventually helped her win the break at 3-2 after which, it was a smooth sailing for the Ukrainian in the first set.
In the second set, Pliskova managed to pull one back after breaking Svitolina’s serve on two occasions. However, in the third set, the Czech appeared to be out of place, having committed as many as 12 unforced errors. She lost her serve twice in quick succession to hand Svitolina a 4-0 lead.
Thereafter, she managed to break Svitolina twice, only to squander those points in the subsequent games. All in all, Pliskova’s serve was broken four times in the final set and consequently, her Ukrainian adversary sailed to a comfortable victory.
Svitolina was remarkable in all the aspects – she had eight aces, 29 winners, and just 18 unforced errors in comparison to Pliskova’s 28.
Wozniacki, on the other hand, needed more than two hours to clinch her first victory in this year’s WTA Finals. The current WTA Eastbourne champion defeated Kvitova 7-5, 3-6, 6-2.
In the first set, Kvitova was broken twice although; she did manage to save three break points. In the second set, the Czech appeared to be particularly determined and on the back of 17 winners and 4 break points, she got herself back into the game.
In the third set, however, she committed 14 unforced errors, two double faults, and hit only 4 winners. By comparison, Wozniacki had only 3 unforced errors and 6 winners. Needless to mention, this proved to be deciding factor for Kvitova’s defeat.
The Czech now stands at 0-2 on win-loss with very slim chances of making it to the next round. Angelique Kerber takes on Naomi Osaka and Sloane Stephens plays Kiki Bertens tomorrow.
Be the first to comment