Story highlights
Unbeaten Muguruza qualifies for semis
Kvitova also through despite second loss
Czech helped by Safarova's victory
Kerber eliminated on countback
Garbine Muguruza entered the WTA Finals as the hottest tennis player on the women’s tour – and the Spaniard hasn’t slowed down in Singapore.
Muguruza defeated two-time Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova 6-4 4-6 7-5 Friday to join Maria Sharapova in amassing a perfect 3-0 record as the group stage came to a close. It wasn’t all bad news for Kvitova, who also made the last four from the White Group after friend Lucie Safarova did her a huge favor.
Concluding the round-robin with a 1-2 record, Kvitova needed her fellow Czech to later beat Angelique Kerber in two sets to go through, and that’s exactly what happened. Safarova won 6-4 6-3 to leave the three players with identical 1-2 records; Kvitova progressed having the best winning percentage of sets won and lost.
“I’m glad I could help Petra get to the semifinals,” Safarova said in an on-court interview.
Muguruza didn’t really have to worry about any of that. The 2015 Wimbledon finalist was virtually guaranteed a semifinal place before she struck a ball against Kvitova.
Her fighting spirit didn’t lack even in such a comfortable position, however. The 22-year-old rallied from 4-2 down in the third set and fended off two break points in the final game before closing out Kvitova – whose only win was against Safarova – on a fourth match point.
“I went to the court thinking that I want to win the match, not only a set or just to qualify,” Muguruza told reporters. “I went there like, ‘No Garbine, go on the court and if you go on the court, you have to go and win, not to be half-half.’”
Muguruza has barely put a foot wrong since teaming up with Frenchman Sam Sumyk – the former coach of Eugenie Bouchard and Victoria Azarenka – in September. The Asian swing brought a title in Beijing this month and the week before the Venezuela-born Muguruza made the final of another big tournament in Wuhan.
The world No. 3 will be favored to make the final in Singapore, too, since Muguruza has won four straight matches against semifinal opponent Agnieszka Radwanska, all this year.
Muguruza is attempting to become only the fourth player in more than 40 years to win the elite year-end event on her debut. Also still in contention in the doubles with Carla Suarez Navarro, she could leave Singapore as the first player since Martina Hingis in 2000 to claim both crowns in the same season.
“It’s going to be a challenge for me to see how much my body can handle, because now I don’t have a day off,” Muguruza said. “It’s great to be in my position I think now, to be playing singles and doubles semifinals, but it’s going to be hard. I have to recover well and do everything possible to be ready for both matches.”
Sharapova meets Kvitova in the other semifinal, a repeat of the 2011 Wimbledon final.
Although Kvitova prevailed that day to open her grand slam account, Sharapova leads their head-to-heads 6-3 and has triumphed in five of their previous six tussles. Kvitova’s lone victory during that spell, though, was in Singapore last year when both exited at the group stage.
They’ll probably do battle again when the Czech Republic hosts Russia in the Fed Cup final in Prague in the middle of November.
Read: What went wrong for Halep?
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