Halep starts WTA Finals Red Group action with solid win over Garcia

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Simona Halep attacked Caroline Garcia‘s surprising surge in Asia, ending the Frenchwoman’s 11-match winning streak and avenging the recent loss in the China Open final with a 6-4 6-2 victory in the opening match of the Red Group round-robin play at the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global.

The world No.1 Halep struggled to hold serve early into the match, and even though she broke the WTA Finals debutante Garcia at love in the fifth game, the set was back on serve in the next game, as Garcia implemented her father’s advice to keep the ball down the middle and patiently wait for the right opportunity to open the court. At 4-4, the eighth-seeded Garcia’s double faults helped Halep earn a crucial break of serve, which the Romanian top seed capitalized on in the following game by converting her third set point with a powerful backhand down the line.

The second set was pretty much cruise control for Halep, her only hiccup being the fact that she had to recover from 0-40, back-to-back double faults and a horrible error, to hold serve for a 3-1 lead. From then on there was no looking back.

This is Halep’s first match win since she’s climbed to the top of the WTA rankings.

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