Barty, Sevastova storm into Elite Trophy semifinals
Print Edition
ASHLEIGH Barty and Anastasija Sevastova booked their semifinal spots without dropping a set in the round-robin phase of the WTA Elite Trophy in Zhuhai, south China’s Guangdong Province, yesterday.
Barty, the Australian who is the youngest in the draw, posted a 6-3, 6-4 win over former world No. 1 Angelique Kerber to top the Rose Group with a 2-0 record.
The 21-year-old struck a staggering 35 winners to just 12 unforced errors in a dominant performance. Barty, seeded ninth, posted her first victory over Kerber after losing their only previous meeting in Brisbane at the start of the season.
“It was a tough group for me because I hadn’t actually beaten either of those girls,” Barty, who beat Russian Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in her first group match, told reporters.
“It’s nice to sort of get that revenge this week, but I felt like I served great all week and put myself in a good position in my service games to then be super-aggressive and nice and clear when returning.”
Sevastova, making her tournament debut, posted a perfect record in the Camellia Group with a 6-3, 6-4 win over Czech Barbora Strycova.
The Latvian came back from 0-2 down in the opening set, winning 20 of the next 24 points to take the first set, and later claimed a break in the seventh game of the second set to earn the victory.
“I feel it’s my best Asian tournament this year, so I feel great in Zhuhai,” Sevastova said. “I haven’t been playing so well in China, in Asia, particularly, but here somehow it suits my game, I think, the court, the balls.”
Later in the day, American CoCo Vandeweghe also progressed to the final four with a 6-3, 6-2 win over Russian Elena Vesnina, who was struggling with a back injury throughout the match.
The event features the leading players on the women’s tour who didn’t qualify for the WTA Finals in Singapore last week.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
