Pliskova, Muguruza shooting for semis in Singapore

Karolina Pliskova and Garbine Muguruza have a golden chance to seal a semifinal place in Singapore with a win on Tuesday night at the WTA Finals.

Pliskova and Muguruza will face off in the second of Tuesday’s round-robin matches, with the winner putting themselves in a strong position to qualify.

A win would see either player top the White Group with a 2-0 winning record; their progression would depend on the result of the first round-robin match of the day between Venus Williams and Jelena Ostapenko.

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Pliskova has won six of her eight meetings with Muguruza, yet the Spaniard won their last clash – on hard courts in the semifinals of Cincinnati.

Muguruza on Sunday enjoyed a straight-sets win over Ostapenko but Pliskova was even more dominant in a 6-2 6-2 destruction of Williams.

Williams beat Ostapenko in their only previous meeting in the quarterfinals of Wimbledon this year.

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On Monday night, Caroline Wozniacki finally notched a win over Elina Svitolina, trouncing the Ukrainian 6-2 6-0 in under an hour.

Wozniacki had lost all of her previous three meetings against Svitolina, who in 2017 has won five WTA titles.

“I think I played really well and I served well and stayed aggressive,” Wozniacki said. “I think I just kind of broke her down a little bit. Then I think she lost the belief or she tried to go a little bit more for it. She just couldn’t find a break or find a way to break me.”

Earlier on Monday, world No.1 Simona Halep snapped Caroline Garcia’s 11-match winning streak with a 6-4 6-2 win.

The result was revenge for Halep, who fell to the Frenchwoman in the recent China Open final in Beijing.

“I feel great in the first tournament where I’m coming as No.1. I won the first match, so it’s nice and I did enjoy the time on court,” Halep said.