Gavrilova scores vital win in Moscow

Daria Gavrilova has scored a critical first-round win at the Kremlin Cup to stay in the hunt for a spot at the prestigious Elite Trophy round-robin event.

Gavrilova recovered from losing the second set – where she blew five match points – to beat Czech Kristyna Pliskova 6-4 6-7 (7-5) 6-1. Gavrilova and fellow Australian Ashleigh Barty are fighting to secure qualification in the 12-player field for the season-ending showpiece in China. Players ranked ninth to 20 at the end of the WTA’s 2017 points race next Monday will make the Zhuhai field. Barty, who is sitting out the tour this week, is currently 19th in the race after landing her maiden tour singles title and reaching two other finals in a breakout season. Gavrilova is 22nd and needs to reach at least the quarter-finals in Moscow – where she was runner-up last year to Svetlana Kuznetsova – to have any chance of scraping into the field.

She has now set up a second-round clash with Belarusian qualifier Vera Lapko.

Despite wearing heavy strapping around her left thigh, Gavrilova showed no problems with her mobility, or jet lag, producing some magnificent ground strokes in the opening set much to the frustration of her left-handed opponent.

The Melbourne-based 23-year-old stormed into a 2-0 lead in the second only for Pliskova to level the scores with her first break of serve.

Both players then struggled to hold serve as Gavrilova squandered five match points with the gusty Czech forcing the match into a tie-break which she won to take the match into a deciding set.

But that was all Gavrilova as she charged into the last 16.

Gavrilova, runner-up to Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in an epic three-set final on Sunday in Hong Kong, faces Belarusian qualifier Vera Lapko for an all-important quarter-final berth. Her prospect of making Zhuhai were aided on Tuesday by Pavlyuchenkova’s 7-6 (7-2) 6-1 loss to her Russian compatriot Daria Kasatkina.

Barty and fellow Australian Casey Dellacqua have already clinched doubles qualification to next week’s WTA Finals in Singapore.

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