Kerber crushes Halep at Singapore event

SINGAPORE — Newly crowned world No. 1 Angelique Kerber all but booked her place in the knockout stage of the WTA Finals after a clinical 6-4 6-2 win over Romania’s Simona Halep on Tuesday. Kerber, looking sharper and more focused than she was in her opening round-robin victory over Dominika Cibulkova, posted a surprisingly lopsided victory over the combative Halep, who had looked in ominous touch during her opening match win over Madison Keys. A finalist at the end-of-season championship two years ago, Halep was brimming with confidence ahead of her clash with Kerber but found the lefthander too good on Singapore’s slow indoor hardcourts. Kerber, electing to receive first, broke Halep’s opening service game and despite later dropping her serve and falling 4-3 behind, the German reeled off the last three games in a row to take the opening set after just 43 minutes. Kerber was even more dominant in the second set as Halep, one of the best returners in the game, struggled to impose her own game on the in-form German. Cibulkova plays Keys in Tuesday’s other Red Group match. If she wins Kerber will be assured of topping the group ahead of her final match with Keys on Thursday. On Monday, Svetlana Kuznetsova hacked off her own hair with a pair of scissors and burst into tears before saving a match point and beating the defending champion Agnieszka Radwanska 7-5 1-6 7-5. Despite appearing on the verge of exhaustion and close to breaking down, Kuznetsova somehow summoned up the energy to win her opening round-robin match in dramatic fashion, less than 48 hours after she qualified for the prestigious end-of-season championship. Spectators at Singapore’s Indoor Stadium looked on in stunned disbelief when the Russian gave herself an impromptu haircut early in the deciding third set, asking the umpire to get her a large of pair scissors before proceeding to chop off the end of her ponytail and tossing the loose strands onto her seat. Berdych suffers shock loss in Vienna In Vienna, second seed Tomas Berdych suffered a shock defeat to unheralded Georgian Nikoloz Basilashvili at the ATP Vienna Open on Monday. 
World No. 10 Berdych lost 6-4, 6-7 (5/7), 7-5 to a man ranked almost 100 places below him, after more than two and a half hours on court.
The defeat will hit Berdych’s hopes of reaching next month’s ATP Finals in London. The Czech is currently ninth in the race to London, which pits the top eight players of the year against each other. ‘Calm’ Nishikori makes emphatic Basel start In Basel, Switzerland, Asia’s best player Kei Nishikori played with zen-like calm to begin the Swiss Indoors on Monday with a 7-5, 6-1 defeat of Serbia’s Dusan Lajovic. Nishikori, losing finalist to Roger Federer in 2011, played a controlled power game to earn a place in the second round, breaking open the second set after a tight first against the world No. 77. The event is missing seven-time champion Federer and Rafael Nadal, both of whom have ended their seasons early because of injuries. Fourth seed Marin Cilic stayed in the points chase to London with a 6-4, 6-2 defeat of Mikhail Youzhny. Federico Delbonis of Argentina beat the Russian Andrey Kuznetsov 6-4, 6-4 and American Donald Young eased past Ilia Marchenko 6-4, 6-2. — Agencies