Iga Swiatek advanced to the semi-finals of this year’s WTA Finals after winning her round-robin match in the Tracy Austin Group against Caroline Garcia. The world no. 1’s 6-3, 6-2 win came after an hour and 23 minutes of play.
Despite the one-sided-looking score, Garcia never stopped trying to make her way back into the match. Swiatek, however, was able to ward off any threats that the Frenchwoman stood to pose to her. Swiatek won 74% of her first-serve points and 72% points on return on Garcia’s second serve.
The Pole also saved five of the six break points she faced while converting four of the five break points that came her way on the latter’s serve. After the win, Swiatek admitted to going all in for the last event of the season.
She said, “For sure, I am trying to focus more. It’s my goal in this tournament because in San Diego I felt like I needed to lose on set to get to a different level of focus – maybe because I was tired. But here, I feel like I can just give it all in.
It’s the last tournament of the season and I have nothing to lose. I don’t have to worry about what I’m going to do next. For sure, I’m committed 100% physically and mentally as well”.
WTA Finals: Daria Kasatkina or Caroline Garcia, who’ll join Iga Swiatek?
Meanwhile, Daria Kasatkina kept her chances of making it to the semi-finals alive with a 7-6(6), 6-3 win against Coco Gauff after an hour and 40 minutes of play.
Kasatkina came from down a break in the first set and then a mini-break in the tie-break to take the lead in the match. At the end of play, Kasatkina had 12 fewer winners than Garcia’s 26 but while the latter had 43 unforced errors, Kasatkina had 29 fewer unforced errors as well.
The defeat meant that Coco Gauff doesn’t have any chance of making it to the semi-finals of the WTA Finals. The last round-robin match between Daria Kasatkina and Caroline Garcia will be a knock-out in itself as the victor will take her place in the semis with the loser getting eliminated. Gauff, meanwhile, will play Iga Swiatek. Photo Credit: WTA Twitter
