CANCUN, Mexico -- No.2 Iga Swiatek and No.3 Coco Gauff secured their spots in the semifinals of the GNP Seguros WTA Finals Cancun on a wind-strewn Friday evening.
Gauff won a battle of two of the Grand Slam champions from this season at the GNP Seguros WTA Finals, defeating Marketa Vondrousova 5-7, 6-7(4), 6-3 in the final round of group play on Friday night.
The win eliminated the Wimbledon champion's hopes of advancing to the semifinals. Gauff is the first teenager to make the final four of the year-end championships since Caroline Wozniacki in 2009.
Later in the evening, Swiatek confirmed her position as the group winner after defeating No.6 seed Ons Jabeur 6-1, 6-2 to go 3-0 in the Chetumal Group.
On Saturday, Swiatek will face No.1 Aryna Sabalenka in a match that could decide the year-end No.1 ranking. If Sabalenka wins, she will finish the year at No.1. If Swiatek prevails, she can retake the top spot only by winning the title. This is a rematch of last year's semifinal in Fort Worth, where Sabalenka won 6-2, 2-6, 6-1. The two have split their two meetings this season, both on clay. Swiatek won the Stuttgart final, while Sabalenka took Madrid.
"We'll see what the conditions are going to be," Swiatek said. "Against Aryna it's never easy. I'm just gonna do my best and focus on myself and what I want to do on court. We usually have these matches that are really exciting and really tough, both mentally and physically."
The other semifinal will showcase Gauff against No.5 Jessica Pegula. It will be the first all-American semifinal at the WTA Finals since the reintroduction of the round-robin format in 2003. Both players are making their semifinal debuts at the year-end tournament. Last year in Fort Worth the duo went winless in both singles and doubles. This will be the third meeting of the year between the two top-ranked Americans. Gauff won on the grass in Eastbourne and Pegula got her revenge during her title run in Montreal this summer.
4 - Iga Swiatek (66), Jessica Pegula (56), Aryna Sabalenka (55) and Coco Gauff (50) are the only four players with 50+ WTA main draw wins in 2023. Lineup.
4 - The World No. 1 (Sabalenka) and World No. 2 (Swiatek) will face each other at the WTA Finals SFs for the 4th time in the last 40 years after Wozniacki-Zvonareva (2010), Azarenka-Sharapova (2012) and Barty-Pliskova (2019). Show.
Honestly the conditions at this year's WTA Finals have to be the worst in the tournaments history. Rain delays/stoppages for 3, 4 days straight. Gale force winds. A badly constructed court. Lack of crowds due to the late construction and lack of promotion.
You name it this tournament pretty much has it. A circus is the best way to describe what's been happening this week. And somehow the 8 best women's players are expected to perform with it all.
It's a damn miracle no one has gotten injured.
Through it all somehow the 2 best players in the world have made it, and will battle each other for the year end #1 ranking.
In that sense you can't write a better script (except for maybe having it in the final instead of the semis).
But it's just sad that instead of enjoying quality tennis we're getting the result of whoever deals with the conditions better.
That is not what the WTA Finals was designed for and it's not what it's suppose to be about.
Whoever thought it was a good idea to play the final tournament of the year on an outside court in a tropical city at this time of year should A. be fired and B. never do it again.
The WTA leadership needs a serious overhaul starting with getting rid of Steve Simon because he has been failing time and time again especially when it comes to this event post pandemic.
They need someone who not only cares about the sport itself (the business side of it) but the women playing it. Because this whole week has been abhorrent.
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