Spain’s Garbine Muguruza reached the semi-finals of the season-ending WTA Finals in Guadalajara, Mexico, after beating Anett Kontaveit, while Karolina Pliskova missed the cut despite her comeback victory over Barbora Krejcikova on Sunday.
Muguruza ended Kontaveit’s 12-match winning streak with a 6-4, 6-4 win over the Estonian, booking a spot in the knockout stage for the first time since her tournament debut in 2015.
Muguruza won a remarkable 80 per cent of her first serve points and fired seven aces in Sunday’s victory as she finished second in the Teotihuacan Group behind Kontaveit, with both posting a 2-1 record.
“Today was a match that was kind of everything or nothing,” Muguruza told reporters. “Starting the round-robin with a loss, it was never good. To finally get two wins and qualify was amazing.”
Two-time grand slam champion Muguruza will face compatriot Paula Badosa in Tuesday’s semi-final. The winner of the contest will be the first Spanish woman to reach the final since Arantxa Sanchez Vicario finished runner-up in 1993.
“I didn’t know all of this history,” Muguruza said. “1993 – I was born that year.
“It’s amazing that there are four players left and two of them are Spaniards. That just shows that Spain has a great level of tennis.”
Earlier, Pliskova came out on top in an all-Czech showdown, storming back to stun compatriot Krejcikova 0-6, 6-4, 6-4. Despite the win, Pliskova failed to reach the semi-finals as she finished third in the group, with Kontaveit and Muguruza advancing as the top two. Second-seeded Krejcikova ended bottom after losing all three matches.
The WTA Finals divides the top eight players into two groups of four, with each player competing in three matches. The top two from each group advance to the semi-finals. “The first game was super long and I somehow lost my focus and of course I was a bit nervous to play a Czech woman,” Pliskova said after the match.
WTA plea
The WTA on Sunday called on China to investigate allegations of sexual assault made by Peng Shuai against a former Chinese vice premier, while also demanding an end to censorship of the former top-ranked doubles player.
The ATP, governing body of the men’s sport, backed the WTA’s stance.
Peng, one of China’s biggest sporting stars, alleged on her Weibo social media account that Zhang Gaoli, who used to be a member of the Politburo Standing Committee – China’s top decision-making body – coerced her into having sex and they later had an on-off consensual relationship.
Peng, 35, said in the post, which was deleted about half an hour after it was published, that she could provide no evidence to back her allegations.
China’s internet is heavily censored. Zhang, 75, was a vice premier between 2013 and 2018 and served on the Politburo Standing Committee between 2012 and 2017.
