Kuznetsova claims maiden WTA Finals semis place
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E-mail Xinhua, October 27, 2016
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Svetlana Kuznetsova reached the last four of the WTA Finals for the first time in her career, once again winning her match the hard way. |
The round-robin stage of the WTA Finals continued on Wednesday night, as No.8 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova defeated No.4 seed Karolina Pliskova 3-6, 6-2, 7-6(6) to move to 2-0 in the White Group. Meanwhile, defending champion Agnieszka Radwanksa won over No. 5 seed Garbiñe Muguruza 7-6(1), 6-3 to move to 1-1 in the White Group.
The first set went to the Czech in the match between Kuznetsova and Pliskova, who took it 6-3 as two double faults from Kuznetsova handed Pliskova the break back.
Nevertheless Kuznetsova, who pulled off a comeback of her own against Radwanksa on Monday, showed great confidence and resilience. The Russian presented an outstanding backhand to close another wonderful win when the match reached the tiebreak.
"With all the support of the crowd and my team, I couldn't afford to let myself and everybody down so I had to fight," Kuznetsova said on court after winning the match.
"I haven't been at my best in recent years but something changed this year... I enjoy my game, I enjoy the crowd and I feel blessed to be playing the best players in the world," she added.
Pliskova told the press she didn't feel surprised with the result. "She won two Grand Slams, so it's not someone who just came up. She is (a) very strong woman and she can really play tennis. She has tough game for everyone I would say here in this tournament, especially this surface suits her pretty well, I think."
The Czech also revealed that Kuznetsova was pushing her, and at the important moments the Russian played a little bit better than her.
"Definitely here it's important every game, every set. (I'm) a little bit disappointed to end this way, but definitely going to just try to take (something) positive from this match and just move forward," said Pliskova.
In the match between Radwanska and Muguruza, the defending champion took the lead in the first set, and maintained momentum into the second. Although the Spaniard fought back, Muguruza was unable to consolidate, and a few errors caused her to struggle. Radwanska won with a classy series of shots, punctuated by a clean backhand pass down the line on match point.
Muguruza said at the press conference that the match was difficult for her. "I think we... (were) just playing pretty good during the match, but she got the victory, so I don't really know what to take (from it). I think I could play a little bit better (at) the important moments, but she was coming with amazing shots, amazing dropshots," noted the No. 5 seed.
The loss means Muguruza cannot advance into the semifinals, while Kuznetsova became the first player to advance, making the semis for the first time in her career.
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