Radwanska sees off Muguruza to book final berth — WTA Finals

Muguruza headed into her final singles match against Kvitova needing just one set to secure her place in the last four.

Muguruza then dug deep to save two break points in the next game, but bowed out when Radwanska avoided the tension of a tie-break to win her second match point and claim another decisive break to reach the final.

Radwanska, 26, is making her seventh attempt to win the season finale, with sees the world’s top eight players fight it out for the year’s last title.

“Well, I think for sure I’m going to celebrate tonight with my team who are of course I think even more exhausted than I do watching all my drama matches”, Radwanska said.

It means whoever wins Sunday’s showdown will be the first to lift the title with a 1-2 group-stage record. “So I think the serve of not really the biggest key in that match”, she said when asked about her final set revival. Radwanska won four games on the spin going 4-1 up before the tide turned again with the Spaniard winning the next three.

Radwanska then took the second set 6-3 and the momentum had shifted towards the Pole.

Her wait for a major title will have to wait despite her great run this year, as Kvitova looks well placed to add to her WTA Finals trophy collection. The Pole raced to a 3-0 lead but Muguruza recovered to surge ahead with a few trademark aggressive groundstrokes and sealed the opener on her second set point when Radwanska found the net at the end of a brilliant rally.

The double Wimbledon champion finally got on the scoreboard in the third game thanks to a pair of aces but unable to make any inroads on the Radwanska serve, the Czech recorded her third double-fault in as many games to cough up yet another break.

Overall, Kvitova bosses Radwanska 6-2 in their head to head, winning their only encounter this year 75 64 in the New Haven quarter finals.

The German, who beat Kvitova earlier in the week but lost to Muguruza, was more frustrated with her failure to deliver when it was needed most.

Kvitova will play Maria Sharapova, who won the other group, with Muguruza facing Agnieszka Radwanska in the other semifinal.

She defeated Petra Kvitova in a three-set final and thus moved to No. 5 in the world.

Despite losing in the semi-finals in Singapore, Sharapova, who didn’t play a completed match between Wimbledon and the WTA Finals due to injuries, was happy with her week at the year-end championships, calling it a “breakthrough”.

She won the match 6-7(5), 6-3, 7-5 in 2 hours 41 minutes, while Kvitova beat three-time finalist Maria Sharapova in straight sets, 6-3, 7-6(3) in one hour and 51 minutes.

Understandably, while Muguruza’s game troubles Radwanska, the concept of vice-versa doesn’t really become applicable with both their games.