Coco Gauff posted a uncommon victory over Iga Swiatek to punch her ticket to the semifinals of the WTA Finals in Riyadh on Tuesday and finish the Pole’s bid to assert the year-end primary rating.
Swiatek, the defending champion, was in a direct battle with Aryna Sabalenka for the highest spot this week however wanted a win over Gauff to maintain her probabilities alive of leapfrogging her Belarusian rival.
Gauff, 20, entered the competition having misplaced 11 of her 12 earlier conferences with Swiatek, with the American’s sole victory coming in Cincinnati final 12 months.
However she turned the tables on Swiatek on Tuesday, defeating the second seed 6-3, 6-4 to make it two straight-sets wins from two round-robin matches in Riyadh this week.
“It feels nice. I knew going into the match that regardless of our head-to-head I had a variety of confidence getting in,” mentioned Gauff, who hit 11 double faults in the course of the one-hour 48-minute showdown.
Except for the opening sport of the match, Gauff had break level alternatives in each Swiatek service sport within the first set.
The American third seed made her transfer in sport seven, breaking for 4-3, and he or she closed out the set with a second break of serve, taking the lead in 49 minutes.
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Swiatek wanted six break factors in a marathon third sport of the second set to lastly take down the Gauff serve however she couldn’t consolidate her benefit.
They traded breaks once more, as Gauff’s double-fault tally went as much as double digits and Swiatek racked up the errors.
It was Gauff who finally steadied the ship, and sealed the victory on Swiatek’s forty seventh unforced error of the match.
Earlier within the day, Barbora Krejcikova ended Jessica Pegula’s possibilities of qualifying for the semifinals, defeating the sixth-seeded American 6-3, 6-3.
A runner-up on the WTA Finals final 12 months, Pegula suffered her second straight-sets defeat of the week and enters her remaining round-robin match towards Swiatek on Thursday anchoring the Orange Group with zero units received.
Each Krejcikova and Swiatek should wait till Thursday’s matches to study their qualification destiny in Riyadh.