At first everything looked like a clear thing – then Caroline Wozniacki got herself out of the rhythm. In the end, Caroline Garcia deserved to win.
By Florian Goosmann from Singapore
Caroline Garcia remains in Singapore in the race! The French player won her first round match against Caroline Wozniacki 0:6,6:3,7:5.
Wozniacki got off to another fantastic start, after only 22 minutes it was 6:0 against the WTA-Finals debutante. The Danish player scored just two points in her own service in the first round, and Garcia only managed to win seven points overall.
In the second sentence, Wozniacki started off by himself when her grip cap broke off, she received a warning for exceeding the time limit and did not seem happy with a decision by referee Julie Kjendlie about a ball that Garcia supposedly touched before he had flown out (Garcia hadn’t touched him, as a slow motion showed).
Wozniacki kept her service, but passed the next one through some mistakes and still seemed angry about Kjendlie. Garcia managed another break, which Wozniacki made up for, but then dropped back to a 3:6 set loss.
In the third set Wozniacki caught Wozniacki, won the break to 3:2, but Garcia equalized to 5:5. When she was trailing 0:40, she regained her courage, played aggressively and took the lead – which she continued to take with her second match point to a 7:5 goal thanks to courageous tennis.
Thanks to Garcia’s victory it remains exciting: Elina Svitolina is now eliminated. If Simona Halep wins the second match of the day against Svitolina, Wozniacki and Halep are the best in the group. If Svitolina wins, Garcia is first in the semi-finals, followed by Wozniacki.