Kerber battles to win,

ANGELIQUE KERBER was forced to dig deep in her WTA Finals opener before the German world number one battled past Dominika Cibulkova 7-6(5) 2-6 6-3 in a high-class baseline slugfest at the Singapore Indoor Stadium yesterday.

Earlier, Simona Halep got her campaign off to a perfect start when the Romanian world number four dominated an erratic Madison Keys to kick off round-robin play in the elite eight-woman, season-ending event with a 6-2 6-4 victory.

First-time finalist Cibulkova opened with a double fault and Kerber, who won two grand slam titles in 2016, took advantage of her opponent’s nervy start to grab an immediate break without having to do much more than get the ball over the net.

By contrast, the German found her rhythm right away as she located the corners with ease and used her brilliant retrieving skills to make Cibulkova always play an extra shot when it appeared the point had already been won.

The Slovakian drew level at 4-4, but eventually lost the first-set tiebreaker. She then raced into a 4-0 lead in the second set, and held on to level.

With exhaustion kicking in and the points growing shorter, Kerber recovered after suffering an early break and showed the class befitting the world’s top-ranked player to reel off four straight games on her way to clinching the third set.

World number 36 Pablo Carreno Busta came back from a set down and an ankle injury to win the Kremlin Cup yesterday, beating Italian Fabio Fognini 4-6 6-3 6-2 in the final.

The 25-year-old Spaniard, seeded sixth in the tournament, needed treatment on his ankle midway through the second set but fought on for victory over the world number 50. It was Carreno Busta’s second career title, with his first coming at the end of August when he won in Winston-Salem, beating compatriot Roberto Bautista Agut in the final. – Reuters