WTA Finals: Iga Swiatek breezes past an erratic Aryna Sabalenka into the title round

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Iga Swiatek was just too good against Aryna Sabalenka in their semi-final at the WTA Finals on Sunday. The world no. 2 completed a 6-3, 6-2 win over the world’s highest-ranked singles player after a little over 90 minutes of play.

Swiatek and Sabalenka’s match had been paused on account of rain on Saturday with the score reading 2-1, on serve. When play resumed on Sunday, Swiatek ran off with the proceedings even as Sabalenka kept trying and failing to find a workable tactic against her.

For the match, Sabalenka won 70% of her first-serve points. It wasn’t bad as such but it still felt inadequate when compared to the 80% first-serve points Swiatek won across the match. Swiatek was also quite potent when it came to winning second-serve points especially when compared to Sabalenka.

The Pole won 11 of 17 points played on her second serve and 14 of 21 points played on return on Sabalenka’s second serve. The 22-year-old created seven break points on Sabalenka’s serve and converted four break points of these.

She also saved both break points she faced throughout the match.

WTA Finals: Will Iga Swiatek regain the top ranking?

If Swiatek were to win the title in Cancun, she would finish the year as the no. 1 player in the world for the second straight year.

Speaking about that after her win against Sabalenka, she said, “I feel like it’s still a long way away because I feel like tomorrow’s match will be the toughest one. We can talk about it tomorrow after the match.

I’m just going to continue doing what I’ve been doing in (recent) days”. In the last round of the WTA Finals, Iga Swiatek will play Jessica Pegula. Pegula had already advanced to the finale on Saturday after posting a one-sided win against Coco Gauff.

Both Swiatek and Pegula are the only two players in the tournament who haven’t lost any of the four matches they’ve each played so far. The streak, however, will end for one of the players, on Monday.