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The last edition of the WTA Finals in Singapore is certainly living up to the expectations. On Day 2, tennis fans were left spellbound by the fighting spirit and tenacity of four of the season's best eight women as Kiki Bertens upset Angelique Kerber and Sloane Stephens edged Naomi Osaka, both in three sets.
Now the attention turns to the White Group once more as the second round of matches begin in that group on Tuesday. The outcome in the first round of matches in White Group all went against prediction as Elina Svitolina and Karolina Pliskova emerged winners over former champions Petra Kvitova and Caroline Wozniacki respectively.
Interestingly, Day 3 pits the winners of Day 1 against each other and the losers too face each other.
The first match will see two Grand Slam champions battling it out. Both Kvitova and Wozniacki will be keen to get their first win of the tournament. Getting it done in straight sets will also boost their own chances of qualifying for the semi-finals.
The Czech southpaw has the upper hand in this rivalry and leads it 8-5, having won their last four meetings, which also includes an epic three-set win over the Dane in their last showdown in the semi-finals of the Qatar Open this year.
With five titles this season, Kvitova has certainly done better than anybody else on the Tour, but her performances in the fall have been anything but noteworthy. In contrast, Wozniacki seems to have got back on track with a title in Beijing after showing some inconsistency previously in the year.
Could that inspire the Dane to stop her losing streak to the two-time Wimbledon champion? That certainly remains to be seen.
In the second match of the day, Pliskova takes on Svitolina, a player she leads 4-2. Despite the Czech's apparent ease in dealing with the Ukrainian, here's a caveat. She has lost her last two matches to Svitolina, with their most recent clash being this year in the semi-finals at Brisbane.
Svitolina has certainly figured out how to stop Pliskova from dominating their matches, just as she showed on Sunday that she has worked out a way to beat Kvitova, irrespective of the fact that she had lost seven out of their eight matches earlier.
And that could be the key. Svitolina is determined to justify her place in the best-eight and admitted that her big win over Kvitova was one to silence her 'haters'. With so much confidence from that resounding win, she might just manage to notch up yet another victory in Singapore, although Pliskova's gigantic serve could have a say in this face-off.
Here is the schedule for October 23, 2018:
(2) Caroline Wozniacki vs (4) Petra Kvitova at 7.30pm local time/5pm IST
followed by
(6) Elina Svitolina vs (7) Karolina Pliskova
Here is all you need to know about how to follow the WTA Finals 2018:
Tournament name: BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore
Location: Singapore
Category: Year-ending championships
Date: Tuesday, October 23, 2018
Round: Round robin
Broadcast: No live telecast in India
Live score: wtafinals.com
You can follow all the coverage of the WTA Finals 2018 here on Sportskeeda
