SINGAPORE: Angelique Kerber produced a polished display to claim her second straight win at the WTA Finals with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Simona Halep on Tuesday, the world number one virtually booking a spot in the semi-finals of the elite eight-woman event.

In the second Red Group encounter, Madison Keys claimed her first win of the tournament in a battle between debutants when the American used her powerful forehand to overpower Slovakia’s Dominika Cibulkova 6-1, 6-4.

Top-seeded Kerber, looking sharper and more focused than she was in her opening round-robin victory over Cibulkova, was all smiles after she posted a surprisingly lop-sided victory over the combative Halep, who had looked in ominous touch during her opening match win over Keys.

Kerber, playing steady and precise tennis, allowed Halep to take all the risks. She posted 11 winners and 16 unforced errors to 24 winners and 35 unforced errors for Halep.

Kerber is 4-4 against Halep, but has won four of their five meetings this season - the most matches played between any two players this year.

Kerber is making her fourth appearance at the WTA Finals, but the German has never gotten beyond the round-robin stage.

Despite winning her first two matches, Kerber still has a mathematical chance of missing out on the semi-finals of the elite $7 million tournament after Keys beat Cibulkova in Tuesday’s other match.

Keys looked a completely different player to the one who surrendered meekly to Halep on Sunday when she jumped all over Cibulkova’s serve to race through the first set in 23min.

The Slovak improved to make a contest of it in the second set but a single break in the fifth game was all Keys needed to seal the contest, although the permutations available in the final pool games means all four players can still advance.

In the late match of the White Group on Monday, the Czech Republic’s Karolina Pliskova, who was up by a set and a break, came back from 2-5 down in the third set to defeat Spain’s French Open champion Garbine Muguruza 6-2, 6-7 (4-7), 7-5.

Muguruza had one match point at 5-2, 40-30, but couldn’t close down Pliskova, who won 20 of the final 24 points, in a titanic tussle between big servers.

Pliskova raced through the first set and was a break up in the second before the Spaniard roared back and had two chances to hold serve to claim victory but the Czech rediscovered her form in the nick of time and won the last five games on the trot to take the victory after two and a half hours.

It means Pliskova and Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova stand at 1-0 in White Group action, while Muguruza and Agnieszka Radwanska are 0-1.

Published in Dawn October 26th, 2016