Wozniacki outlasts Sharapova at WTA Finals

Caroline Wozniacki raged at the stadium lighting and an errant line-call as she stunned French Open champion Maria Sharapova in a marathon three-setter at the WTA Finals on Tuesday.

The relentless Dane won a thrilling encounter 7-6 (7-4) 6-7 (5-7) 6-2 in Singapore as she dented Sharapova’s hopes of overtaking Serena Williams to be crowned the year-end world No.1.

Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska also beat Wimbledon winner Petra Kvitova 6-2 6-3 in the White Group round robin on day two at the eight-player season finale.

Wozniacki edged a tight first set before threatening to halt play in the second when stadium spotlights started sweeping the crowd during a point and shone in her eyes while serving.

She then blew up over a line call and lost the second set, before finally clinching the match in three hours, 13 minutes – one of the longest of the season, and 16 minutes short of the tournament record.

“I thought she was joking when she didn’t call that out,” Wozniacki said of the line judge.

“I mean, obviously I had won the point, and then all of a sudden… the linesman is putting her two hands down like it’s good.

“I’m like, ‘You got to be kidding me’. It was hard to miss.”

Wozniacki’s second straight win over Sharapova underlines her strong finish to a year which has had peaks as well as troughs, including her US Open runner-up finish and break-up with golfer Rory McIlroy.

Sharapova now needs to win her remaining round robin matches and reach the final in Singapore to have any chance of knocking Williams off the top spot in the season’s final rankings.

“It turned into a much tougher match than I feel like it should have been. But I feel like I did that, you know. I can only blame myself for that. Physically it was an incredibly tough match,” Sharapova said.

“In the end, I think I just went for a little too much and maybe just didn’t commit enough, didn’t move forward enough, held back a little bit.”

As the match ticked past three hours, sealed it on her first match point.

“I just feel like right now with all the training and running I’ve been doing I can keep being out there and keep running,” said the former world No.1, who is training for the New York marathon.

“I kept thinking to myself out there in the third set, If you’re going to get tired now, how are you going to get through this marathon? You better keep going.

“I did, and I felt pretty good out there. I felt I could still keep going for a while.”

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