Maria Sharapova’s hopes of ending the year as world No. 1 for the first time in her career faded dramatically yesterday when she crashed in straight sets to Petra Kvitova at the WTA Finals in Singapore.
The Russian superstar needed a win to boost her chances of overtaking top-ranked Serena Williams of the US, but she blew up in spectacular fashion as Kvitova won 6-3, 6-2 in 75 minutes.
It was the second upset in quick succession at the season finale after Simona Halep stunned Williams 6-0, 6-2 on Wednesday, the 18-time Grand Slam-winner’s worst defeat in 16 years.
Photo: EPA
To finish the year as world No. 1, second-ranked Sharapova, 27, now needs to win the end-of-season championship and hope Williams does not reach the final, but her first loss to Kvitova since 2011 left her campaign hanging by a thread as she sits bottom of the white group with two defeats and one round-robin match left against Agnieszka Radwanska.
“Of course, I had a long match, over three hours, a day ago, but I don’t feel tired,” said Sharapova, who went down in three sets to Caroline Wozniacki in her opening match. “I’m happy to be here, I’m happy to be part of this event. It’s easy to sit here and say: ‘Yeah, I’m tired.’ I lost two matches, but that’s not the way I feel or the way that I choose to speak. I still have a match ahead of me and I will do my best to finish it on a good note. That’s the only thing I can ask of myself.”
It was a very different story for the resurgent Wozniacki, who beat Radwanska 7-5, 6-3 to near a spot in the semi-finals.
Photo: AFP
Sharapova won the first two games against Kvitova, but then went to pieces as the Wimbledon champion won the next five straight and took the first set 6-3.
Another run of five games put Kvitova on the verge of victory, before Sharapova finally earned a break of her own and then saved two match points as she clung on in a 10-minute hold of serve at 5-1 down.
However, her resistance was broken on the third match point when Kvitova blasted a magical looping forehand which landed on the baseline and beyond the crestfallen Russian.
Wozniacki took more than three hours to beat Sharapova on Tuesday and another long match looked likely when she fought with Radwanska in a tight opening set which featured five breaks of serve, but the super-fit former world No. 1, who is training for the New York marathon, raced through the second set to step toward her first semi-final at the year-ender since 2009.
“I knew from the start that this wasn’t going to be an easy match,” Wozniacki said.
“I came out there a little bit nervous, but you know, I just did my best out there,” the world No. 8 added.
In the late match in the red group, Williams was back to her brilliant best a day after suffering her heaviest defeat since she was a teenager as she swatted aside Eugenie Bouchard 6-1, 6-1 in her final round-robin match.
The world No. 1 was humiliated 6-0, 6-2 by Romania’s Simona Halep on Wednesday, but put herself on the brink of a semi-finals berth with the crushing victory over her hapless Canadian opponent.
Williams, who beat Ana Ivanovic in her opening match on Monday, has two wins and a loss, and needs Halep just to win one set against the Serb to advance to the last four.
Halep is already assured of her place in the semi-finals, while Bouchard has been eliminated from the tournament after three straight defeats.
The 33-year-old forced three break points immediately, and while Bouchard battled back to win a game that ensured Halep advanced to the semi-finals, Williams exuded focus and aggression as she set about dismantling her opponent.
Williams gave the 20-year-old a tennis lesson over the course of the 59 minute thumping, breaking the Canadian’s serve at will.
In the late doubles quarter-final on Wednesday, Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Peng Shuai of China completed a 6-4, 6-1 victory over Spanish duo Garbine Muguruza and Carla Suarez Navarro to set up a semi-final against Alla Kudryavtseva of Russia and Anastasia Rodionova of Australia tomorrow.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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