Maria Sharapova has extended her winning streak against Simona Halep after beating the Romanian in the fourth round of the 2015 WTA Finals.
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Agnieszka Radwanska’s hopes of reaching the semi-finals of the WTA Championships remain alive after stunning Simona Halep in their Red Group meeting.
It was no walk in the park, with the first set going to a tense tie-break.
The Pole, however, is renowned for her tenacious defence and used her supreme retrieving skills to first level up the contest before forging two set points in the 10th game that Halep repelled with a few audacious shot-making into the corners.
It looked like Halep would end up taking the first set as she raced to a 5-1 lead in the tie-breaker. But Radwanska staged a stunning comeback to lead 6-5.
Despite the thrilling nature of her victory, Radwanska can only advance if Sharapova defeats Pennetta in straight sets.
Halep won 6-0 6-3 on Monday against Pennetta, while Radwanska lost a three-set marathon to Sharapova.
Radwanska went on to wrap up the set to give herself a lifeline in the tournament.
The result means that Maria Sharapova, with two group wins under her belt, has qualified for the semi-finals of the US$7 million (S$9.75 million) season-finale even before her final match tonight (not before 7.30pm) against US Open champion Flavia Pennetta. That tournament victory in Spain also came soon after she returned from an enforced break from tennis.
The world No. 2 said she was not used to being top seed, but admitted she was excited to be back where she pulled off her greatest win 12 months ago. “Again, same story: I was close but I couldn’t win. Ups and downs, but it was okay”, she said. The number one seed wasn’t playing a bad match at all – she was just unable to counter Sharapova’s firestorm of pace like she regularly does and she just doesn’t have the ability to finish points quickly like her Russian counterpart does, which would stop her from being pushed four to five feet behind the baseline consistently. It’s the second year in a row.
“I think she had a good day today”. I have to run a little bit more because I need.
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“I had the chance in the first set in the tiebreak”. If the World No. 2 can summon the fighting spirit and the belief she displayed in her first round robin win against Pennetta this year, then it would readily make things hard for the struggling Radwanska. “I go to the holiday”.
