The red-hot Caroline Wozniacki suffered a huge shock in the final Round Robin match at the 2017 WTA Finals against Wuhan and Beijing champion Caroline Garcia as the Frenchwoman beat her counterpart in three tough sets, recovering from a 0-6 first set to clinch the incredible win, ultimately sealing her ticket to the semifinals. Wozniacki will now face Karolina Pliskova in the semifinals while Garcia will face Venus Williams, with these two players potentially meeting in the final once again if they were to win their respective matches.
Wozniacki comes into the match in incredible form
Coming into this encounter in great form, Wozniacki has just lost two games in each of her previous matches against Elina Svitolina and Simona Halep, owning an impressive 24-4 games record in the White Group. Her incredible streak seemed to have continued after the Dane gave out a bagel in the first set of this match, but Garcia’s tough mentality kept her inside the match and allowed her to produce the incredible comeback.
Garcia lost her opening match against Halep but rebounded to beat Svitolina in a thriller, coming from 3-5 down in the final set to triumph. This time, she once again came from 3-5 down in the final set for her second successive three-set win.
Wozniacki grabs the early lead
Carrying over the momentum from her previous victories, Wozniacki showed the confidence in her after electing to serve before comfortably holding her serve to love, playing some top-notch tennis. Garcia was unable to find her groove early on, failing to dictate play as Wozniacki controlled proceedings on the slow Singapore courts. The former world number one took the first break of serve after Garcia sent a forehand long, allowing the Dane to take the early lead. Wozniacki easily consolidated the break, opening up a 3-0 lead within a blink of an eye.
Bagel sealed for Wozniacki
Nothing was working for Garcia as her aggression often backfired against the stubborn Wozniacki defense, and the pressure started to affect her greatly as she soon went down a double-break deficit. Another love service game for Wozniacki followed with the Frenchwoman looking lost on the courts, hitting error after error. The Dane’s counterpunching tennis certainly works extremely well on these courts, ultimately sealing the bagel with an impressive forehand passing winner after just 23 minutes of play, limiting Garcia to just seven points won throughout the set.
Garcia gets on the board
Wozniacki had a complicated start to the second set but she was able to fend off the tough challenge of Garcia, who managed to get to deuce in a game for the first time in the afternoon. The former world number sealed her seventh consecutive game with a powerful ace, looking poised to claim the win. Garcia finally got onto the scoreboard with a confidence-boosting love service hold, and she started to settle into the atmosphere.
The Frenchwoman takes the lead for the first time
The Frenchwoman was able to earn her first break points as Wozniacki let her emotions overwhelm her after hitting a couple of errors but she was still able to narrowly hold on and remain on serve. Garcia followed suit with another hold but she was finally able to break the duck and be the first player in Singapore to break the Dane’s serve as she unexpectedly took the lead.
Garcia seals the second set 6-3
The momentum was all with the Frenchwoman and everything started to click for her, and she looked comfortable on the courts while Wozniacki started to misfire all her shots. Within a blink of an eye, Wozniacki was very erratic and frustrated as she trailed 2-5, with Garcia earning the golden opportunity to serve out the set. Although she was broken to love on the first attempt, the world number eight broke serve for the third consecutive time as she claimed the second set 6-3 and leveled the scores, giving herself a chance to qualify for the last four.
Wozniacki opens up early 3-1 lead
An exchange of holds started the final set before Wozniacki made the first breakthrough early in the decider as Garcia’s forehands started to go all over the place, and she found herself in some deep trouble when the world number six consolidated the break for a 3-1 lead. Garcia had the perfect chance to retrieve the break but was unable to capitalize on her opportunities as she directly sent the returns into the net on all her break points.
The Dane gets pegged back and Garcia steals the victory
Wozniacki soon jumped out to a commanding 5-3 lead, edging closer than ever to the win. Serving for the match at 5-4 up, the Dane was just two points away from the victory but Garcia stepped up her quality of play at the most crucial moments, coming out of nowhere to grab the break back to level the scores.
Showing some tough mentality and how far she has progressed since the start of the year, Garcia dug out of a 0-40 hold at 5-5 as she played some clinical aggressive tennis to take the lead for the first time since the opening game of the decider, forcing Wozniacki to serve to stay in the match.
For the first time throughout the match, Wozniacki felt the pressure and threw away a game point only to see Garcia earning match points. Sending a forehand long, the Dane was just unable to match-up against the inspired Frenchwoman as the eighth seed clinched the incredible victory after two hours and 20 minutes of play.