SINGAPORE: Big-serving Karolina Pliskova used her most potent weapon to damaging effect as she overwhelmed defending champion Caroline Wozniacki 6-2, 6-4 in their opening round robin match of the WTA Finals at the Singapore Indoor Stadium on Sunday.

In the earlier White Group encounter at the eight-woman event, Elina Svitolina tore up the form book with a brilliant display of serving and retrieving to register a 6-3, 6-3 victory over Petra Kvitova.

Pliskova, who now leads the tour with 48 wins this season, saved all 10 break points she faced in the match, including two when serving for the match in the final game. The Czech closed out the match on a third match point with an ace.

“I felt pretty good from the baseline today, so it wasn’t only down to my serve,” Pliskova said in a post-match interview. “The game was solid from my side and she looked nervous at the start... it’s always tough to defend the title for everybody, so I am happy with my performance today.”

Wozniacki, who had only played two top-10 players this year before Sunday, struggled with rhythm in the first set and made several uncharacteristic errors.

“I think I was struggling a little bit with the timing in some of the points and just trying to find my rhythm,” she said. “I think there were times where I played really well, and I was trying to move her around, but there were also times when I just didn’t time the ball perfectly.”

The seventh-ranked Svitolina, making her second consecutive appearance in Singapore, only earned qualification to this year’s tournament last week when Dutchwoman Kiki Bertens failed to reach the Moscow semi-finals. Later, Bertens made the final eight when top-ranked Simona Halep withdrew with a herniated disk in her back.

“It’s very nice to be back in Singapore and I’m very, very happy with the match tonight,” Svitolina told the crowd. “I had to stay focused and be strong mentally. You have to play your best level because everybody is very strong playing here.”

Kvitova rued her subpar opening performance. “Wasn’t the best start, but the good thing is there is still a chance to play better and to improve and maybe go somewhere forward,” she said.

Svitolina, who suffered a minor health scare when she felt dizzy during her post-match news conference, will take on Pliskova on Tuesday, while Wozniacki will hope to get her title defence back on track against Kvitova on the same day.

The Red Group action starts on Monday with number one seed Angelique Kerber playing Kiki Bertens and Naomi Osaka squaring off against Sloane Stephens in a battle of the past two US Open champions.

Published in Dawn, October 22nd, 2018