Garbine Muguruza to face Paulo Badosa in semis
Two-time Grand Slam champion Garbine Muguruza booked her semi-final spot at the WTA (Women's Tennis Association) Finals yesterday morning (Singapore time), with a 6-4, 6-4 victory over Anett Kontaveit that ended the Estonian's 12-match winning streak.
Muguruza's victory in her final round-robin contest in the eight-woman season finale in Guadalajara, Mexico, denied Karolina Pliskova a place in the knockout phase.
The former world No. 1 Pliskova battled to a gutsy 0-6, 6-4, 6-4 victory over fellow Czech Barbora Krejcikova earlier.
Muguruza will face fellow Spaniard Paula Badosa tomorrow morning (Singapore time).
"It's amazing there are four players left and two of them are Spaniards. I mean, that just shows that Spain has a great level of tennis.. It's going to be a fun match," Muguruza said.
Kontaveit was already assured of a semi-final berth after winning her first two matches to stretch a WTA winning streak that included titles at Moscow and Cluj-Napoca.
Meanwhile, the WTA has called for Chinese player Peng Shuai's claims of sexual assault by former China vice-premier Zhang Gaoli to be "investigated fully, fairly, transparently and without censorship".
The former top-ranked doubles player made those accusations earlier this month, but the details are scrubbed from China's Internet. Searches for her account on the Weibo platform also returned no results, although the account could still be accessed via a web link. - AFP
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