After Madison Keys and Dominika Cibulkova both lost, Karolina Pliskova is now the only WTA Finals debutante to win a match at the 2016 edition of the prestigious tournament and the victory came in style, as the No.1 Czech saved a match point to devastate Garbina Muguruza 6-2 6-7(4) 7-5 in the White Group. The match lasted two hours and 29 minutes and finished at about 1:30 a.m. local time.
Sporting her new black and white Court Couture Fila kit, the fourth-seeded Pliskova confidently marched through the opening set without facing a break point and went 3-1 up in the second.
The fifth-seeded Muguruza went on to win four straight games to go up 5-3 as Pliskova produced excessive errors. But it was not easy for the Spaniard to level the match, as Pliskova fought back to force a tiebreak and even started it with a 3-0 lead.
Eventually, the momentum swings in the tiebreak finished in Muguruza’s favor and we were in for yet another exciting three-setter at the 2016 WTA Finals (the only straightforward match was the tournament’s opener between Simona Halep and Madison Keys).
In the nailbiting decider, Muguruza raced to a double break lead, 4-0, and later on served for the match twice, but cool Pliskova didn’t find any deficit insurmountable and after saving a match point at 2-5 on her opponent’s serve, the Czech climbed to 6-5 and tense and devastated Muguruza couldn’t handle the nerves and lost her fifth consecutive game to hand victory to Pliskova.
In the previous Monday’s White Group thriller, Svetlana Kuznetsova beat defending champion Agnieszka Radwanska.
