Coco Gauff kicked off her WTA Finals marketing campaign with a commanding 6-3, 6-2 victory over fellow American Jessica Pegula on Sunday.
Second-seeded Iga Swiatek, making her return after a two-month hiatus, fought again to defeat Barbora Krejcikova 4-6, 7-5, 6-2.
Gauff showcased her abilities by changing 5 of her eight break-point probabilities, marking a robust begin on the prestigious year-ending match that includes the highest eight ranked gamers.
“I thought we both were playing at a high level,” Gauff mentioned. “I just think I was able to break through on the more important points.”
Gauff will face Swiatek on Tuesday, with the winner taking management of the Orange Group. Pegula will subsequent face Wimbledon champion Krejcikova.
Swiatek, who arrived on the WTA Finals with a brand new coach, hadn’t performed a match since shedding to Pegula in straight units within the U.S. Open quarterfinals in September.
“Even though I played a lot of those (practice) matches, I kind of forgot for a while how it feels to experience all those things – a bit of different stress and emotions,” Swiatek mentioned. “For sure, I needed some time to adapt. The most important thing was that even though it happened, I managed to fight through that and was patient enough to wait to get better.”
Swiatek rallied from 3-0 down within the second set to show it round towards Krejcikova, who has been hampered by accidents and had performed solely 29 matches coming into the finals, seven of which had been victories at Wimbledon.
On Saturday, top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka eased to a straight-set victory over Zheng Qinwen within the opening match of the finals in Saudi Arabia. Fourth-seeded Jasmine Paolini of Italy defeated fifth-seeded Elena Rybakina within the different Purple Group match.
Source: www.dailysabah.com