SINGAPORE: World number one Simona Halep crashed out of the WTA Finals on Friday as French debutante Caroline Garcia stunned Caroline Wozniacki to reach the last four.

Halep needed a win to keep her campaign alive but she was sent packing by the already eliminated Elina Svitolina, who won 6-3, 6-4 in 71 minutes.

It means Garcia, the lowest-ranked player in the draw, tops Red Group after she fought back from behind to upset Wozniacki 0-6, 6-3, 7-5 earlier on Friday.

Garcia will now play American veteran Venus Williams on Saturday, while Denmark’s Wozniacki faces Karolina Pliskova in the other semi-final at the Singapore Indoor Stadium.

Despite not reaching the semi-finals, Halep will retain the top ranking unless Pliskova wins the title, which would make her the year-end number one.

“This system [round-robin] I don’t like,” Halep said. “You stay like stressed all week. If you lose, of course, you have another chance. I just want it to be if you lose you go home.”

Despite going into the contest knowing she can go no further in the tournament, Svi­tolina came out motivated and broke Halep at the first opportunity, the Ukrainian rewarded for a far more aggressive approach than she employed in her previous ties.

The world number four kept her nose in front with her positive play as Halep struggled to find any sort of rhythm and Svitolina carried the momentum of the early break all the way to a one-set lead after 32 minutes.

Locked at 3-3 in the second set, Svitolina continued to play with the freedom that was missing in her opening losses and more sloppy play from Halep enabled the Ukrainian to edge ahead and she sealed victory when the Romanian found the net on the second match point.

Earlier Garcia, the world number eight, was pinching herself after her thrilling victory over Wozniacki — her first win in three career meetings with the Dane.

Garcia, who won her last two tournaments to reach the Finals, was two points from elimination in the 10th game of the third set but she dug deep to hand Wozniacki her first defeat of the competition.

Even so, Garcia had to endure a nervy wait until Svitolina beat Halep to send her into the last four.

“It was kind of weird, actually, to be here,” Garcia said. “I qualified last minute, two weeks before. I really wanted to keep improving, play every single match and get experience. That’s why I think I won these [last] two matches.”

Wozniacki, who has been in sensational form in Singapore, described her first loss as “annoying”.

“I feel like I should have won that match, but it is what it is,” she said. “I had the chance to serve it out and I didn’t. That’s really it.”

Published in Dawn, October 28th, 2017