Garcia tops group to complete semifinal line-up

Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia was in a familiar position on Friday in her match against Caroline Wozniacki at the WTA Finals in Singapore.

She stared down elimination when she was flogged in the first set of their round-robin match. And her come-from-behind 0-6 6-3 7-5 win in two hours and 19 minutes kept her alive in the tournament.

But it was the already-eliminated Ukrainian Elina Svitolina who sent her through to the semifinals by upsetting world No.1 Simona Halep 6-3 6-4.

As a result Garcia finished atop the Red Group and will meet Venus Williams in the semifinals.

Garcia is used to overcoming odds in a very impressive latter half of 2017. It wasn’t too long ago that she didn’t even think she would be in Singapore.

But a combination of a foot injury to Britain’s Johanna Konta and an 11-match winning streak – compiled with back-to-back tournament titles in Wuhan and Beijing – coming into the tournament snagged her the final spot in the elite eight-woman field.

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Garcia says she is preparing for the trademark Williams aggression that has served the 37-year-old so well here in Singapore and through the year.

“I mean, she did an amazing season this year with two finals in Grand Slams. It’s great to see her capable of playing at this level, and at 37, it’s kind of hard to believe, actually,” Garcia said.

“She has a lot of experience. She knows how to manage these kind of matches, and I will not be the aggressive player on court.

“It will be (a) different match than my last three.”

Following Halep’s loss, whether she retains the world No.1 ranking at year’s end is out of her control.

If Karolina Pliskova – who faces Wozniacki in the other semifinal – wins the tournament, she will become No.1.

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In doubles, Ash Barty and Casey Dellacqua were knocked out of the tournament after a 7-6(7) 6-7(1) [10-6] loss to Kiki Bertens of the Netherlands and Johanna Larsson of Sweden.

Bertens and Larsson will meet Russian duo Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina in the semifinals, after the Russian duo thrashed Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowski and Yifan Xu from China 6-1 6-1.