World No. 1 Iga Swiatek certified for the semifinals on the WTA Finals in Fort Worth, Texas on Thursday after Daria Kasatkina beat American Coco Gauff 7-6(6) 6-3 in a round-robin stage match on the eight-player, season-ending match.
Swiatek, who improved to 2-0 on this yr’s competitors following her personal 6-3 6-2 win over Caroline Garcia, goes by means of because the winner of her group, whereas Gauff can not qualify for the semifinals.
Gauff began the match strongly, roaring to a 4-1 lead, earlier than Kasatkina fought again to degree the primary set at 5-5. Gauff’s eyes welled up with tears throughout the changeover after she was then damaged to fall behind 5-6.
The 18-year-old regrouped to interrupt again and drive a tiebreak, however Kasatkina as soon as once more confirmed grit to combat again from 3-0 down and declare the breaker 8-6.
Kasatkina, a WTA Finals debutante, saved up the strain within the second set, buying and selling a few breaks with Gauff, earlier than breaking to take a 4-2 lead after which serving out the match a number of video games later.
“To win for the first time at the Finals is an incredible feeling,” Kasatkina stated.
“Obviously you want to win and go further in the tournament, so the motivation to win is there, but it’s not easy to manage the nerves and I feel it. I hope I can make it (to the semifinals) in the next match.”
For Swiatek, who upped her profession Grand Slam tally to a few with wins at this yr’s French Open and U.S. Open, her victory over Garcia earlier on Thursday gave her some measure of revenge on the Frenchwoman after having fallen to her within the quarter-final on the Poland Open in July.
The 21-year-old Pole broke at love for a 5-3 lead after which served out what proved to be a decent opening body on her third set level when world quantity six Garcia despatched a forehand lengthy.
Swiatek then broke Garcia to start out the second set and within the subsequent sport calmly roared again from 0-40 down to carry serve and by no means confronted a break level the remainder of the best way in a match she sealed in fashion with an ace.
Garcia tried to make use of aggressive courtroom positioning to throw her opponent off and was usually returning serves from contained in the baseline however Swiatek was ready for the Frenchwoman’s ways.
“Yeah, she was putting a lot of pressure and putting a lot of speed on her balls so I needed to get them back and hit them even better. I was ready for that,” Swiatek stated throughout her on-court interview.
“We had really good tactics with my coach and they gave me the belief that I could dominate even though she is playing really, really well.”
