Top-ranked Ash Barty yesterday won the WTA Finals trophy, beating defending champion Elina Svitolina in straight sets, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Barbora Strycova won their semi-final in the doubles, but fell in the final yesterday to Timea Babos and Kristina Mladenovic.
Barty had not beaten Svitolina in five previous attempts, but she dominated yesterday, winning 6-4, 6-3 in 1 hour, 26 minutes at the Shenzhen Bay Sports Center.
The Australian claimed US$4.42 million — the biggest ever awarded in men’s or women’s tennis.
Photo: EPA-EFE
Barty, like Svitolina, dropped the opening set of her semi-final on Saturday before beating Karolina Pliskova 4-6, 6-2, 6-3.
Belinda Bencic retired in the third set as Svitolina outlasted the injured Swiss to win 5-7, 6-3, 4-1.
Babos and Mladenovic played a masterclass to defend their WTA Finals doubles title in a lopsided final. The world No. 3 pairing completed an unbeaten campaign with a 6-1, 6-3 rout in 64 minutes.
The French Open champions were the first team since 2008 to defend their crown. It was a third straight triumph for Babos, who won in 2017 when paired with Andrea Sestini-Hlavackova.
“We really stood up and believed in our mental strength,” Mladenovic said after the match.
The French-Hungarian pairing started red hot and captured two early breaks to run through a one-sided first set in just 24 minutes.
They gained a decisive break in the sixth game of the second set before completing a convincing victory over the Wimbledon champions.
Hsieh and Strycova reached the finals after steamrolling through their semi-final on Saturday, overwhelming eighth seeds Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany and Demi Schuurs of the Netherlands 6-1, 6-2 in under an hour.
Hsieh and Strycova broke Groenefeld and Schuurs in seven of eight service games, while only being broken twice themselves.
Taiwan’s Latisha Chan and Chan Hao-ching failed to get out of the group stage after losing all three of their round-robin matches.
Switzerland’s Bencic questioned the quality of the court at the event after she joined the list of players to pull out of the end-of-season championship on Saturday.
Bencic retired midway through the third set of her semi-final against Svitolina to become the fourth player to withdraw at this year’s tournament, which is being played on a temporary hard court at the indoor facility.
“I was cramping,” Bencic said. “I started to feel it at the start of the second set, my hamstring. I called the physio. I started cramping in my foot and again in my hamstring.”
“I really didn’t want to retire. I wanted to finish the match. It was not possible. I’m really disappointed about how my body failed me,” she said.
“I think these courts are really not ideal. You can see there were four retirements,” she said.
Twelve days after winning her second Grand Slam title at the French Open, Coco Gauff fell at the first hurdle on grass in Berlin on Thursday as beaten Paris finalist Aryna Sabalenka advanced to the quarter-finals. Recipient of a first round bye, American Gauff lost 6-3, 6-3 to Chinese qualifier Wang Xinyu as world number one Sabalenka beat Rebeka Masarova 6-2, 7-6 (8/6) in her second round tie. Winner of 10 main tour titles, including the US Open in 2023 and the WTA Finals last year, Gauff has yet to lift a trophy in a grass-court tournament. “After I won the first
Sergio Ramos on Tuesday outfoxed two Inter players and artfully headed home the first goal for Monterrey at the FIFA Club World Cup. The 39-year-old Ramos slipped through the penalty area for the score just as he did for so many years in the shirts of Real Madrid and Spain’s national team, with whom he combined smarts, timing and physicality. Ramos’ clever goal and his overall defensive play at the Rose Bowl were major factors in Monterrey’s impressive 1-1 draw against the UEFA Champions League finalists in the clubs’ first match of the tournament. “There is always a joy to contribute to the
Top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka staged a “crazy comeback,” saving four match points before beating Elena Rybakina 7-6 (6), 3-6, 7-6 (6) in the quarter-finals of the Berlin Open on Friday. Sabalenka was 6-2 down in the final-set tie-breaker, but won six straight points to reach her eighth semi-final of the season. “Elena is a great player and we’ve had a lot of tough battles,” Sabalenka said. “I have no idea how I was able to win those last points. I think I just got lucky.” “I remember a long time ago when I was just starting, I won a lot of matches being down
While British star Jack Draper spent the past week trying to find rhythm and comfort in his first grass tournament of the season at the Queen’s Club Championships in London, Jiri Lehecka on Saturday bulldozed everything in his path. After more than two furious hours of battle, their form was reflected in the final scoreline as Lehecka toppled a frustrated Draper, the second seed, 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 to reach the biggest final of his career, against Carlos Alcaraz. Lehecka is also the first Czech to reach the men’s title match at Queen’s since Ivan Lendl lifted the trophy in 1990. Draper, who