Kvitova beats Safarova at WTA Finals

Second seed Garbine Muguruza
recorded a straight-sets victory over Angelique Kerber to maintain her 100 per cent winning record at the WTA Finals in
Singapore and close in on a semi-final spot.

Petra Kvitova left fellow Czech left-hander Lucie Safarova staring at possible elimination from the WTA Finals when she beat her 7-5, 7-5 on Wednesday.

Kvitova was beaten by Kerber in her opener on Monday but bounced back from a 3-0 deficit in the second set to come out on top in a tense finale against Safarova.

Venezuela-born Muguruza broke at 4-4 in the second set when Kerber sent a backhand pass wide before serving out for the set and putting one foot into the last four.

It was a phenomenal display of serving brilliance by both women as neither would surrender a break point in the first 11 games.

Even when Kerber was eye-to-eye with her adversary she often came up one shot short against the advancing Spaniard. The fact that she won’t play devalues the event. Kvitova and Safarova have led the Czech Republic to three trophies from the last four Fed Cup editions.

Safarova technically stayed alive in contention to move on from round robin play with Muguruza’s victory in the day’s second match.

“I know that, but I’m really motivated on both sides, so hopefully I can win as much as I can in both the singles and doubles”.

Already catapulted to the No. 3 ranking, Muguruza is the first Spaniard to play the WTA Finals since Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario in 2001.

The youngest woman in the singles field scored her fourth consecutive victory over Kerber following three-set wins at Roland Garros and Wimbledon and a 6-4, 7-6 (5) decision in the Wuhan semifinals earlier this month.

At 22 years old and easily playing in a few of the biggest matches of her life right now, Muguruza has also shown very little signs of nerves and is playing with a confidence like she knows she belongs on this stage. “For sure it was a hard match”. “I really was trying to be there and be focused on each point”, she said. By the time you say it Muguruza has probably tried to end a rally.

Thursday’s fixtures: Hao-Ching Chan/ Yung-Jan Chan vs Garbine Muguruza, C Suarez-Navarro, Simona Halep vs Agnieszka Radwanska, Maria Sharapova vs Flavia Pennetta, B Mattek-Sands/ Lucie Safarova vs Caroline Garcia/ Katarina Srebotnik.