RIYADH: World number two Iga Swiatek was eliminated from the WTA Finals on Thursday after Barbora Krejcikova defeated Coco Gauff to secure her spot in the semi-finals at the expense of the Pole.

The Czech Wimbledon champion claimed a 7-5, 6-4 victory over Gauff to end the title defence of Swiatek, who needed Krejcikova to lose in order to progress from the group stage.

With one win and one loss under her belt entering the last day of round-robin play, Swiatek’s 6-1, 6-0 victory over alternate Daria Kasatkina did not have any bearing on her qualification chances.

The only scenario that would have led to Swiatek’s advancement to the semi-finals would have been a Gauff win over Krejcikova.

That result did not materialise though and Krejcikova punched her ticket to the semi-finals of the WTA Finals for the first time — on her second singles appearance.

Krejcikova moves forward as the winner of the Orange Group, and will face Zheng Qinwen in Friday’s last-four stage, with Gauff of the US advancing as the runner-up to set up a semi-final showdown with world number one Aryna Sabalenka.

“Definitely this is a big win for me. I’m really happy with how I played and with my performance today. It was a really big match,” said Krejcikova, who saved a remarkable 11 of 12 break points against Gauff.

“I was just fighting for every ball and I knew it’s going to be difficult because I know Coco is on a roll and she’s one of the best players this season.”

Earlier in the day, Swiatek crushed Kasatkina in a mere 51 minutes and later admitted she had no idea her qualification chances solely depended on the result of the evening match.

“Honestly, I don’t think it matters, like we go out on court to win every match anyway. So I wasn’t thinking about that. I didn’t know that this is the case,” said the Pole.

“If I’m not going to play semis, then I’ll have a couple of days off, and I can’t take back time and play better in the match that I played against Coco. I won two matches in the group, so I guess I did everything I could to be there.”

Published in Dawn, November 8th, 2024