Ashleigh Barty, the current world rank no. 1 reached the semifinals of the year-ending WTA Finals. This is the first time, Barty is playing in the WYTA Finals and she was able to reach the semis with a 6-4 and 6-2 win against Petra Kvitova. This win allows Barty to finish the Red Group of WTA Finals with a 2-1 record.
Barty is the first female player from Australia to finish as the year-end world no. 1 following her first Grand Slam title win of the French Open back in July.
Barty said during her interview, “I feel as if executed really well tonight. Overall, I was aware that I need to come here and play really aggressively. I needed to play to win. I am really excited to get a chance to come here again and play at this court.”
Belinda Bencic also joined Barty in the semifinals of the WTA Finals following Kiki Bertens retiring in the middle of the match which Bencic was leading by 7-5 and 1-0.
Bencic said, “It is pretty amazing because I made the cut of the WTA Finals at the very last moment. I am now through the group even though I have lost the first match.”
Up next, Barty will be facing the winner of the match between Simona Halep and Karolina Pliskova for the semifinal of the WTA Finals. As for Bencic, she will be facing Elina Svitolina, the WTA Finals’ defending champion.
Kvitova, who finished the round-robin of WTA Finals with 9-3 for the 2nd year in a row said, “When it comes to deciding points, Barty always played better than me. I think my serve w sot great today.”
As for the Bertens, she made it into the WTA Finals following Naomi Osaka withdrawing due to shoulder injury.
As for the replacement of Bianca Andreescu, it will be Sofia Kenin who will face Svitolina and if she wins the match against Svitolina, she will receive a sum of $305,000 on top of her original $165,000 participating sum.
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