Aryna Sabalenka and Caroline García won their semifinal matches this Sunday at the WTA Finals against Poland’s Iga Swiatek and Greece’s Maria Sakkarirespectively, and will meet this Monday in the grand final of the teachers’ tournament.
Sabalenka knows how to win from her serve and win for the first time in 2022 against world number one, Iga Swiatekin three sets of 6-2, 2-6 and 6-1.
Sabalenka’s options are largely dependent on all the juice she can get from her powerful serve. He showed it from the first moment, when Swiatek had three break balls due to his own mistakes, and the Belarusian was able to save him by dominating from his serve to take the first game.
This helped him gain confidence and win on Swiatek’s serve, leading the first set 4-2 in his favor. In the closing hours, he showed character and beat the Pole again for the final 6-2 in 40 minutes of play.
The world number one knew how to react and took the lead in the second set with a 4-0 start where he regained the party’s cause and also the psychological battle.
Two ‘breaks’ for Swiatek in a devastating rhythm game that Sabalenka could only break in the fifth and sixth games for 4-2. But the Pole knew how to finish, winning the Belarusian’s serve again and taking the last two games for a 6-2 final.
Her best version appeared on the Fort Worth track carrying Sabalenka from one side of the track to the other, thus forcing a third and final set.
The dynamic of the last set did not change much, both players held their serve. Sabalenka tried to be strong with her serve, hitting a few ‘aces’ that gave her the upper hand against her rival.
Swiatek, with the ball in play, tried to impose his style and run his rival, but he started making mistakes that left him with no options.
Sabalenka quickly made it 4-1 in her favor and stayed calm to figure out how the match would end. He kept his advantage and didn’t let the same thing happen as at the US Open, when the Pole came back from the opening set.
Sabalenka is the second Belarusian to reach the grand final of this tournamentafter Victoria Azarenka won it in 2011. She will fight to become the first Belarusian to be crowned champion.
In the first game on Sunday, Maria Sakkari came to the meeting with another day off and confidently won her three stage games in the group, but she again ran into Caroline Garcia, who had never lost to the Greek.
In the same year he had already left him in the Cincinnati tournament in a contested match with two tie-breaks, and he had previously done the same in the Wuhan semifinals in 2017.
This psychological battle seems to affect Maria Sakkari, who is far from the image of confidence and solvency shown in recent days.. In contrast, the Frenchwoman dominated the timing and form of the match at all times, imposing her game from the first ball.
Caroline Garcia was more superior, showing it not only by stealing her serve, but also with master strokes that never allowed the Greek to enter the match (6-3).
This domain was also seen in the second set from the start, with Sakkari’s service, Garcia added the first game. Far from equalizing the contest, the French side fell further, and finished the second set on the fast track with a resounding 6-2.
Sakkari was severely punished by a poor success percentage on first servesand Garcia didn’t let up when he had the chance to punish his rival, adding four breaks in the five times he did so.
Garcia will play the most important game of his career this Monday, surpassing the performance of five years ago at this WTA Finals. In that edition he reached the semifinals.
It also reached a historic page in French tennis, Garcia will become the third French tennis player to play in the grand final after Amélie Mauresmo, who played it three times and won in 2005, and Mary Pierce who played it twice when did not succeed.
If she manages to become the second French woman in history to lift the title, she will surely return to the WTA Top 5 and could even be fourth in the ranking at the end of the tournament.
Caroline García and Aryna Sabalenka have met four times so far with two wins each. one of them, the latter fell to the French side this year in the Cincinnati semifinals with a victory in three sets by 6-2, 4-6 and 6-1.
Source: La Verdad
I am Ida Scott, a journalist and content author with a passion for uncovering the truth. I have been writing professionally for Today Times Live since 2020 and specialize in political news. My career began when I was just 17; I had already developed a knack for research and an eye for detail which made me stand out from my peers.
