After reaching his 110th tour final in Beijing, Rafael Nadal has chosen his pick to win the season-ending WTA Finals in Singapore.
The ten-time grand slam champion believes compatriot Garbine Muguruza is the player ‘with the most potential’ to win the multi-million dollar event. Muguruza will lose her No.1 ranking on Monday following Simona Halep’s recent triumph over Jelena Ostapenko. This year five different women has held the top spot on the women’s tour for the first time since 2008.
Nadal declined to comment when asked about Muguruza’s fall from the top, but stated that he believes she will be the best player in the upcoming tournament. The WTA Finals features the eight highest scoring players of the season.
“Garbiñe is still the one with the most potential to win at the WTA Masters in Singapore. She will play in the Masters, she has the most potential to win it and hopefully it will be like that,” Nadal told reporters in China.
A Spanish woman has never won the WTA Finals and the only previous finalist from the country was Arantxa Sanchez Vicario back in 1993. On the other hand, Muguruza has enjoyed a milestone season where she won her second grand slam title at Wimbledon as well as the Cincinnati Open. Against top-10 players she has scored seven wins in what is her second best season performance after 2015.
“Every season one of my main goals is (to) qualify for Singapore, as it’s proof you are one of the best eight players of the year,” Muguruza told wtatennis.com last month. “To secure my place so early gives me great satisfaction and motivates me to keep working hard as we enter the last section of the season. I have great memories of the tournament and the city. It will be my fourth year in a row there, and I look forward to playing my best tennis.”
Nadal is also seeking to win the end-of-year championship title at the O2 Arena in London next month. A two-time finalist in London, the world No.1 is hoping to win the title for the first time. Only two Spanish players have previously won the ATP Finals. Manuel Orantes in 1976 and Alex Corretja in 1998.
