Muguruza bounces back past Sevastova into semis
zhuhai — Former world number one Garbine Muguruza battled past second seed Anastasija Sevastova to clinch a place in the semifinals of the WTA Elite Trophy in China on Friday.
The two-time grand slam winner from Spain won her final round-robin match — effectively a playoff for a semifinal spot — 6-7, 6-2, 7-6. Sevastova, 22 from Lativa, took a nip-and-tuck first set in Zhuhai after a tie-break, but Muguruza, also 22, comfortably won the second.
The decider was a thriller for the fans at the Hengqin International Tennis Center, who witnessed some nailbiting tennis as the players fought toe-to-toe.
But world number 17 Muguruza took control in the final tiebreak, producing some fantastic shots to win it 7-1 after over two hours and 45 minutes on court.
She joins Australia’s Ashleigh Barty and Germany’s Julia Goerges in Saturday’s semifinals.
Madison Keys, Daria Kasatkina and Wang Qiang could all still qualify from the last group. Keys will go through if she beats China’s Wang in straight sets later on Friday.
Earlier France’s number one Caroline Garcia missed out on a semifinal spot despite beating Aryna Sabalenka in straight sets.
The 22-year-old won 6-4, 6-4 but because she lost more than seven games to the Belarusian, Barty scraped through the roundrobin group following her win over Garcia on Thursday.
A straight-sets win, or even a loss in three sets, would have been enough for 20-year-old Sabalenka, but the tournament’s youngest player joins Garcia in being eliminated from the tourney. —