Simona Halep and Maria Sharapova secured victories on the opening day of the WTA Finals event in Singapore.
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Top-seeded Simona Halep opened Red Group play dismissing Flavia Pennetta, 6-0, 6-3, to avenge her US Open semifinal loss. “I’m just hoping to be okay during the matches, though, because I didn’t play official matches until now”.
“She played really consistent”, said Pennetta, making her WTA Finals debut.
“I have played really well this month and hopefully I can continue to do so, but I don’t know if I can be regarded as one of the favourites”, she said. I think (my) return was good, so everything in a big picture was good.
The fifth-seeded Radwanska took out a 56-minute first set and, after dropping the second set, looked the likely victor when she had three break points for a 2-0 lead in the decider.
Maria Sharapova is renowned for her sheer determination in the face of adversity but in Singapore on Saturday, the Russian was quick to cast doubt over her chances of winning the WTA Finals after an injury-ravaged second half of the season. Every match here is like the final of a Grand Slam – I played the semifinals with Flavia in the US Open.
“After spending a night in the hospital in Beijing & having to stay there for a few extra days I was able to fly home”, she tweeted.
“Maybe I had not too much energy”, said the 33-year-old.
The oldest player in the field of eight knows she will not recover as well as her younger competitors, but perhaps with the mentality of someone playing her swan-song, knows she has the opportunity to play freely.
“Coming into this event, I tried to do everything I could to be healthy and although I didn’t play my best tennis today, sometimes that’s not what matters”, Sharapova said of a match that lasted two hours, 48 minutes with a large portion of games going to deuce. It all depends on the form and motivation at the start of the match. She’s only participated in two tournaments since the French Open back in May, one of which was an upset by Barbora Strycova in the first round of the Wuhan Open. Yeah, I’m going to feel it tomorrow and I’m going to be a little bit exhausted, but, hey, that’s the game.
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The White Group consists of Garbine Muguruza, Petra Kvitova, Angelique Kerber and Lucie Safarova, with round-robin play in that pool starting today. She opened up her season with a title in Brisbane and would go on to make the final at the Australian Open before losing to Serena Williams in straight sets.
