Halep, Wozniacki score WTA Finals wins

Simona Halep says she is a work in progress but her up-and-down 2017 has prepared her well for an assault on the WTA Finals in Singapore.

The World No.1 scored a hard-earned 6-4 6-2 win over Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia on Sunday night, and acknowledged her battle with an ankle injury has steeled her for the battle to retain the sport’s top spot at year’s end.

She says she’s thinking positive now after a dark period following her injury during the claycourt season in Rome.

“Of course (I) had some tough moments at the beginning of the year, but also, I was a little bit frustrated with my injury. I was really negative with myself,” Halep said.

“But then I changed. I’m still working on that, and I think I made big steps forward.”

Halep said she used a match in Toronto earlier this year in which she defeated Garcia as tactical inspiration.

“(At) the beginning she’s very consistent and very strong, but then in the second set already I started to feel that I dominate the match and I got more confidence.”

The result snapped Garcia’s 11-match unbeaten run, which included two WTA titles.

But the Frenchwoman was unable to keep her good form going as Halep took out the match in 88 minutes.

In the later match, Caroline Wozniacki blitzed Elina Svitolina 6-2 6-0 in just 59 minutes.

Wozniacki only faced one break point the entire match and was able to save it, whereas Svitolina lost every one of the five break points she faced.

Svitolina described it as her “worst loss in the last couple of years.”

“My game was all over the place today, so, you know, she didn’t really have to do anything special because I was doing lots of unforced errors. I was missing the court by miles,” Svitolina said.

The Dane’s victory was extra sweet for her given Svitolina had beaten her in two finals this season.

Halep and Wozniacki’s wins make them the early leaders in the tournament’s Red group.

The White group will take the court in Monday’s matches, with Venus Williams first up on court against Jelena Ostapenko and Garbine Muguruza meeting Karolina Pliskova.

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