In a battle of
WTA Finals debutants, it was the red-hot
Anett Kontaveit who got the win over
Barbora Krejcikova 6-3 6-4.
It's been a very entertaining start to the WTA Finals with Anett Kontaveit taking on Barbora Krejcikova. Neither player played at the event before and in this one it was Kontaveit who proved better. The Estonian player booked a spot in Guadalajara after an amazing run late in the year that saw her win back-to-back trophies in Moscow and Cluj-Napoca.
Proving she belongs at this event she won her first match quite confidently against Krejcikova. Barbora Krejcikova has not been playing the way she played on clay for a while yet the Czech player is always dangerous with her clean groundstrokes that can cause a lot of damage. Some of that was on display today but Kontaveit had all the answers.
The first set was played rather comfortably by both tennis players. The elevation helps the ball carry faster through the thinner air and that suited both. Krejcikova only ran into trouble in one service game and Kontaveit was able to use that to her advantage. The break was more than enough to secure the first set with 6-3.
It was a huge win for Kontaveit considering she only hit 43 % of her first serve giving Krejcikova enough chances to attack her. The Czech did, but she was not as precise as she needed to be. It wasn't much better in the 2nd set as well as Kontaveit broke her in the first game of the 2nd set. After that, she did not allow a single break point closing it out with 6-4.