World No. 7 Elina Svitolina overcomes Kiki Bertens in the semifinals of the 2018 WTA Finals Singapore 2018 with 7-5, 6-7(5), 6-4 to enter the title-decider.
Things were fairly even between the two players for most of the first set. Bertens and Svitolina, both of whom have had a terrific season, didn’t give a lot of opportunities to each other for the break.
It wasn’t until the fourth game the Ukrainian found an opportunity to break Berten’s service and take a 3-1 lead. However, the current Madrid Open runner-up was quick to bounce back. In the very next game, she broke Svitolina to make things square. Things were pretty much the same until 4-5 when the Dutch had to save a set point and a break point to stay in the game.
Despite a solid performance, Bertens was once again broken at 5-6 with Svitolina taking the first set. The Dutch was certainly the superior player here – she had five aces and 13 winners in contrast to her opponent’s one and four respectively. However, the decider here proved to be her 21 unforced errors.
In the second set, things got far more intense between the two players. Bertens got an early break in the very first game and she managed to hold on to that for most of the set. At 5-3, she had a chance to win the set but the reigning WTA Dubai champion proved her mettle by fending off the danger and saving the set point.
She repeated the same feat again at 5-4 and this time, Svitolina saved three set points and broke Bertens’ service to get back in the game. It wasn’t soon before the second set went into the tiebreaker. It was certainly close but the Dutch won the set 7-6(5).
The start of the third set was definitely intriguing, to say the least. Bertens lost her service in the very first game but she fought incredibly hard to win it back in the second one. The two players alternated between deuces eight times with Svitolina saving three break points before finally succumbing to the Dutch.
However, the Ukrainian broke Bertens’ service once again the third game to take a 2-1 lead in the third set. Svitolina managed to hold on to that lead for the remainder of the set. As a result, she moved on to take the third set 6-4 and thus reached the final for the first time in Singapore.
Considering the performance of the two players, Bertens had 41 winners in comparison to Svitolina’s 12. At the same time, she also committed 63 unforced errors while her adversary committed only 36.
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