Wozniacki back on track at Finals
CAROLINE Wozniacki overcame a mid-match wobble and withstood a barrage of big hitting to get her WTA Finals title defense back on track with a 7-5, 3-6, 6-2 victory over Petra Kvitova at the Singapore Indoor Stadium yesterday.
Both players came into the contest on the back of opening defeats in round-robin play but the Danish world No. 3 ended a run of four straight defeats to the Czech to stay alive in the eight-woman tournament for at least one more match.
Wozniacki, who started her White Group campaign with a demoralizing 2-6, 4-6 loss to Karolina Pliskova on Sunday, spent most of the match against Kvitova pinned on the baseline but her consistency and patience proved vital as she pulled away in the final set.
Kvitova, who won the WTA Finals title in her debut appearance at the year-end tournament in 2011, finished the match with 40 winners and 40 unforced errors. Wozniacki had 19 winners and 14 unforced errors.
“I played much better today. I served and returned pretty well, and moved really well against a player who is so powerful that you have to stay on your game,” Wozniacki said.
“You never know what is going to happen against Petra, so I just stayed focused and got a lot of balls back.”
The match was a cagey affair from the outset with seven holds of serve in a row. But after they traded breaks as the intensity levels picked up, Wozniacki broke again to seal the opener when Kvitova blasted a forehand into the net.
Kvitova took control of the second set with an early break, then lost momentum when Wozniacki took a timeout for treatment on her knee, before she regained the upper hand to level the match with a sliced backhand winner on her third set point.
Sensing her title defense was in tatters, Wozniacki regrouped to break at the start of the decider when she put away a backhand to win the longest rally of the match, and ran away with the contest as Kvitova wilted in the final set.
The 28-year-old Wozniacki sealed victory on her first match point with a big serve that Kvitova sent long, and will hope to win her final match of round robin play against Elina Svitolina to secure a semifinal berth.
Wozniacki’s last victory over Kvitova was also at the WTA Finals, way back in 2014.
“I just always believe in myself, that I am going to win when I go out on court. I was just out there, had the belief and fought to the end,” Wozniacki added.
Kvitova has now lost both her matches and needs results to go her way in the White Group to stay afloat in the seasonfinale.
The Ukrainian Svitolina, who beat Kvitova in her opening match, outlasted big-serving Pliskova 6-3, 2-6, 6-3 in the latenight match yesterday, virtually assuring herself of advancing to the last four.