Ashleigh Barty in Semis of WTA Finals After Win Over Petra Kvitova

Shenzhen: World No. 1 Ashleigh Barty powered into the semi-finals of the 2019 WTA Finals Shenzhen here on Thursday after blasting 6th seed Petra Kvitova in straight sets, 6-4, 6-2 in their red group round-robin clash.

With the loss, Kvitova extended her losing streak against Barty in their head-to-head to three matches and her drought at the WTA finals to eight. It is also the Australian's first-ever straight-sets win against Kvitova.

The stakes were much higher for the Czech going into the meeting. She needed a straight-sets win to have a certain chance of advancement, while Barty had the breathing room to drop a set and could even have advanced in a three-set loss depending on the result of the game-percentage tiebreaker after the Bertens-Bencic red group meeting.

Each player held their opponent to 15 on their opening service games, but Kvitova was made to really sweat on her second, saving a double break point but managing to just hold on with an ace along the way.

Kvitova only managed to win 41 percent of her first service points in the second set, notching 11 unforced errors to only 7 winners on the way to dropping the match in 90 minutes. IANS

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