Elina beats Sloane to win WTA Finals

SINGAPORE: An unwavering Elina Svitolina claimed the biggest title of her career with a gritty comeback victory against Sloane Stephens at the season-ending WTA Finals in Singapore.

The Ukrainian once again dug deep to triumph 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 in two hours and 23 minutes yesterday. She is the first player to go through the WTA Finals undefeated since Serena Williams in 2013.

Elina has been in brilliant, aggressive form in Singapore, beating defending champion Caroline Wozniacki, Czech players Petra Kvitova and Karolina Pliskova at the group stage, and Kiki Bertens in the semi-finals.

Having started slowly in the semi-finals, it was Sloane who made the running early and she broke Svitolina to love in the second game.

It was a matchup of similar styles between the athletic counterpunchers and lengthy rallies punctuated the contest.

Elina looked sluggish after playing the two longest matches in the tournament against Caroline and Kiki in the semi-finals.

She saved three break points in the sixth game but was unable to convert two chances of her own in Sloane’s next service game.

Sloane’s blistering forehand dictated, as she ran away with the first set.

A more aggressive Elina went for her shots and clawed back into the contest. Even though she still struggled on serve, Elina attacked on return and broke twice to wear down a suddenly passive Sloane.

Elina fittingly forced a decider in a tournament which has had a record-setting amount of threeset matches.

The 24-year-old’s momentum continued as she produced an astounding run down winner to break Sloane in the second game.

But Sloane wouldn’t roll over as she attacked Elina’s serve and broke in the fifth game.

The twists continued as Elina hit back immediately and stormed home as a wayward backhand from Sloane sparked jubilation from the number six seed.

Elina could rise three spots to World No 4 on the rankings after her triumph and she has now won nine straight finals.

It ended the tournament’s fiveyear run in Singapore with the season-finale moving to Shenzhen.

Earlier, Timea Babos and Kristina Mladenovic played a masterclass to upset World No 1 Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova in the doubles decider.

The World No 3 held the edge throughout to triumph 6-4, 7-5 in 84 minutes.