Wozniacki too good for No.1 Halep
SINGAPORE: Caroline Wozniacki brushed aside top-ranked Simona Halep 6-0, 6-2 for her second win in red group at the seasonending WTA Finals yesterday.
The Danish sixth seed, who is now guaranteed of a semi-final berth, posted her first win over Ukraine’s No.4 Elina Svitolina in grand style with a 6-2, 6-0 thrashing on Monday.
Svitolina was due to play France’s Carolina Garcia, who lost in straight sets to Romania’s Halep on Monday, in their second match later last night.
Meanwhile Karolina Pliskova was delighted to secure a last-four berth with one White Group match to spare after Tuesday’s 6-2, 6-2 victory over Garbine Muguruza enabled the Czech a chance to relax ahead of her last round-robin tie.
“I’m just happy that I don’t have to play the next match for qualifying, because last year I was playing for it and it was pretty stressful,” the world No.3 told reporters as she remembered her agonising defeat to Agnieszka Radwanska in 2016.
“So always happy, you know, that if I can win few matches in a row, it give me always extra confidence. Even today was not the best, but still I won so it counts,” she added after following up her opening day victory over Venus Williams.
Pliskova, who still has a chance to end the season as the world No.1, admitted it was difficult for her and Muguruza to go on court after Williams and Jelena Ostapenko had battled out a three-setter that lasted more than three hours.
“I’m just happy that we didn’t play for the next three hours, because we were waiting for quite long,” the 25-year-old added.
Muguruza beat Ostapenko in her opening match but was completely flat against Pliskova and the Spaniard is hoping to regroup before her all-or-nothing showdown against the 37-year-old Williams for a semi-final berth today.
“I’m just going to concentrate on my next match, because I know I still have a chance,” said the world No.2.
CILIC AND DIMITROV QUALIFY
World No.4 Marin Cilic and Bulgarian Grigor Dimitrov have sealed their spots in next month’s ATP Finals, leaving two spots still up for grabs in the season-ending tournament in London.
The duo join world No.1 Rafael Nadal, Swiss ace Roger Federer, Germany’s Alexander Zverev and Austrian Dominic Thiem in the elite eight-man field after Sam Querrey lost his first round match at the Vienna Open on Tuesday.