Elina Svitolina beat world number 1 Simona Halep 6-3 6-4 to clinch her first win at this year’s edition of the WTA Finals in Singapore. Svitolina’s win and Garcia’s dramatic victory over Caroline Wozniacki in three sets mean that Caroline Garcia wins the Red Group, while Caroline Wozniacki finished second. The French player will play against Venus Williams. Wozniacki will take on Karolina Pliskova in the other semifinal. Halep is eliminated in the round robin stage for the thrd consecutive year after losing to Serena Williams in the final in 2014 in her debut at this tournament.
Svitolina and Halep met for the fourth time in their careers and for the third time this year. Svitolina won two head-to-head matches in the final of the Internazionali d’Italia in Rome in three sets and in the semifinal of the Rogers Cup in Toronto in straight sets. Halep beat her Ukrainian rival in three sets in the quarter finals at Roland Garros.
Svitolina broke serve at 30 to take a 2-0 lead and held her next three service games to open up a 5-2 lead. Halep held at love in the eighth game, as she was serving to stay in the set at 3-5. Halep missed a backhand at 15-30 in the ninth game. it went to deuce, as Svitolina made her first double fault of the match on set point. Svitolina closed out the first set by 6-3 with a good serve.
Halep had an easy hold at the start of the second set. The Romanian player went down 0-40, but bounced back by winning five consecutive games to break serve for 2-0. In the third game Halep went down 0-40 but won two consecutive points to claw it back to 30-40. The World Number 1 player missed a forehand into the net to drop her serve.
Svitolina held her serve easily to draw level to 2-2. After a trade of holds Halep took a 40-15 lead in the seventh game. Svitolina forced the game to deuce with a great return and a forehand pass. Svitolina broke serve to take a 4-3 lead, as Halep netted a forehand. Svitolina served for the match and closed out the match with a great shot.
“It was not a good tournament for me, but I tried to play without pressure as it was my last match of the season. The goal was to leave Singapore with a win and I am happy that I managed to achieve it”, said Svitolina.
Only Karolina Pliskova can overtake Simona Halep for the year-end number 1 ranking. Halep will become the 13th year-end number 1 in WTA Ranking history unless Pliskova wins the Singapore title.
