Muguruza, Kvitova win at WTA Finals
SINGAPORE — Second-seeded Garbine Muguruza improved to 2-0 in group-stage matches at the WTA Finals by beating Angelique Kerber 6-4, 6-4 Wednesday.
In the day’s other match, fourth-seeded Petra Kvitova defeated fellow Czech Lucie Safarova 7-5, 7-5 for her first win in Singapore.
Muguruza broke Kerber twice in each set to wrap up the win in 1 hour, 38 minutes.
Kvitova improved to 8-0 in career matches against the ninth-seeded Safarova, who fell to 0-2 in her first appearance at the season-ending tournament. Kvitova and Kerber are 1-1, with all four White Group players still in contention for a spot in the semifinals.
The powerful left-handers took to court in identical outfits and were also almost impossible to separate on the scoreboard, with each player racing through their service games in a tight first set high on winners and low on unforced errors.
Kvitova appeared happy to keep the points short to conserve energy as she continues her battle with mononucleosis but was jolted into life when she gave up the first break point of the match at 5-5 in the opener, staving off the threat with a crosscourt winner that she greeted with a roared “Come on!.”
A pair of huge serves put the double Wimbledon champion back in front and the set appeared destined for a tiebreak when Safarova led 40-15, but the French Open finalist wobbled and Kvitova pounced, wrapping up the opener with a big forehand.
Safarova shrugged off the disappointment by racing out of the blocks in the second, breaking twice to storm 3-0 clear before the world No. 5 rallied behind her formidable forehand to quickly erase the deficit.
Kvitova had seized the momentum and was threatening to run away with the contest when she held two break points to forge 5-3 ahead before Safarova held firm through a mixture of guts and guile to drag it back to 4-4.
Both players were now playing their best tennis of the match but it was Kvitova who pounced again to ensure a tiebreaker would not be needed, wrapping up victory in one hour, 49 minutes with a deep return that Safarova could only thump into the net.
Federer flawless
In Switzerland, Roger Federer eased to a 6-1, 6-2 first-round win at his hometown Swiss Indoors Tuesday against Mikhail Kukushkin of Kazakhstan.
Top-seeded Federer, a six-time champion at Basel, took just 55 minutes to complete victory over 64th-ranked Kukushkin.
Federer created 13 break-point chances and took four of them to clinch his first win in more than five weeks.
Federer’s Round of 16 opponent Thursday will be Philipp Kohlschreiber of Germany, who beat Jerzy Janowicz of Poland, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3.
Also Tuesday, sixth-seeded John Isner of the United States fired down 19 aces in beating Ernests Gulbis of Latvia, 6-3, 6-4.
Eighth-seeded David Goffin of Belgium, runner-up against Federer last year, rallied to beat Andreas Seppi of Italy, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4.
Grigor Dimitrov of Bulgaria earned a second-round match against Rafael Nadal by beating Sergiy Stakhovsky of Ukraine, 6-3, 6-4, and Croatian Dusan Lajovic advanced when another Ukrainian Alexandr Dolgopolov retired when the score was 6-4, 2-0. — Agencies
