World number one Angelique Kerber recovered from a set down to beat Dominika Cibulkova and notch up her first win at teh lucrative season-ending WTA Finals in…
ADVERTISEMENTWorld number one Angelique Kerber recovered from a set down to beat Dominika Cibulkova and notch up her first win at teh lucrative season-ending WTA Finals in Singapore.
The German top seed – who is enjoying a breakthrough season this year – got off to a sluggish start and first time finalist Cibulkova took full advantage to win the first set on a tiebreak.
But Kerber – this year’s Australian and US Open champion – eventually found her rhythm to win the second 6-2 and take the match into a decider.
Kerber carried her momentum into the third set and locked that down 6-3 to win her first match of the Red Group.
Elsewhere in the group third seed Simona Halep brush aside American sixth seed Madison Keys in straight sets.
Halep proved just too hard to handle for tournament debutant Keys who failed to produce any consistency on the night mixing stunning winners with errors.
The Romanian was in command early on and stormed through the first set 6-2.
Buoyed by drawing first blood, Halep started the second in fine fashion and fended off a late charge by Keys to win it 6-4 to seal the match.
The round-robin stage at the elite eight-woman event continues on Monday when defending champion Agnieszka Radwanska plays Russia’s Svetlana Kuznetsova, and Czech Karolina Pliskova takes on Spain’s Garbine Muguruza.