Having already ensured her spot in the semifinals as the White Group leader with victories over Garbine Muguruza and Venus Williams, in her third round-robin match Karolina Pliskova wasn’t nearly as impressive as in her first two wins, falling to Jelena Ostapenko 6-3 6-1 in 66 minutes at the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global.
The seventh-seeded Ostapenko entered the match knowing that she had already been eliminated from the tournament, but the Latvian wanted to enjoy every moment on the big stage, winning seven consecutive games from 2-3 in the first set to 3-0 in the second.
Despite her two previous losses in the White Group, to Venus Williams and Garbine Muguruza, the 20-year-old French Open champion Ostapenko is ending her breakthrough season with a win, ensuring us that this is just the first of the many times we’ll be watching her at the WTA Finals. The third-seeded Pliskova, on the other hand, will have 48 hours to get herself together and prepare for the No.2 qualifier out of the Red Group.
So happy for Jelena. She finished the year on a high!