Wozniacki seeks repeat at wide-open WTA Finals
singapore — The women’s tennis season concludes at the WTA Finals in Singapore next week and, like a majority of tournaments during the 2018 campaign, picking a winner from a wide-open field seems a near impossible task.
With Serena Williams battling to regain fitness and top form following a difficult childbirth in 2017, the Grand Slams went to four different women for the second consecutive year.
Caroline Wozniacki was one of three first-time major champions when she captured the Australian Open in January and the Dane is back in Singapore to defend her WTA Finals title full of confidence and momentum.
The other maiden major winners were French Open champion Simona Halep and rising Japanese prospect Naomi Osaka, who stunned Williams in last month’s controversial US Open final, while Angelique Kerber beat Williams at Wimbledon to claim her third Grand Slam title.
Halep is the only one of the four Slam champions to miss the WTA Finals after a back injury forced the world No.1 to withdraw just days before the event. Williams, who played in only seven events this year, three of them Grand Slams, has not been to the season finale since winning it in 2014, when it was first staged in Singapore.
The eight women who earned a spot at the tournament have been divided into two pools of four, with play getting underway on Sunday in the White Group when big-hitting Czech Petra Kvitova takes on Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina. World number two Wozniacki will open her campaign immediately after that clash in the other White Group match of the night against Czech Karolina Pliskova, a player she beat in last year’s semifinals on her way to the title.
“All the best players are here so there’s no easy matches. I’m just excited to start the competition and do my best,” Wozniacki said at Friday’s draw ceremony. “I want to defend my title and end the season on a high.” —