SUBSCRIBE TO NEWSLETTER!
 
 
Facebook Social Button Twitter Social Button Follow Us on InstagramYouTube Social Button
NewsScoresRankingsLucky Letcord PodcastShopPro GearPickleballGear Sale


By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Tuesday October 18, 2022

 
Caroline Garcia

Caroline Garcia notched an important win in Gaudalajara. So did Daria Kasatakina and Maria Sakkari, as the trio close in on WTA Finals qualification.

Photo Source: Getty

As the race to the WTA Finals heats up, three competitors met the challenge on Tuesday in Guadalajara, notching important wins to close in on a bid to Fort Worth.

Tennis Express

Caroline Garcia, currently sixth in the race, Daria Kasatkina, currently seventh, and Maria Sakkari (tenth, but technically ninth, and eighth after today) each reached the round of 16 Guadalajara Akron Open.

Garcia, just 11 points ahead of Kasatkina in the race, wrestled past Canada’s Rebecca Marino, 6-7(2), 6-3, 7-6(5). Marino fired 24 aces and won 80 percent of her 61 first-serve points, but could not hold off the Frenchwoman in a back-and-forth final set.


Garcia, who was down 0-30 while serving at 5-6 in the decider against the 80th-ranked qualifier, gets Sloane Stephens or Belinda Bencic next.

Switzerland’s Bencic, who began working with coach Dmitry Tursunov this week at Guadalajara, is still in the race as well – she will need a big effort to qualify (at least semis, maybe more).

Kasatkina, however, is in a great position. After reaching the round of 16, the Russian is headed for a best year-end ranking in 2022. She defeated China’s Zhu Lin 6-1, 6-2 on Tuesday and will face either Elise Mertens or Anna Kalinskaya next.

Kasatkina started the year outside of the Top-25, but has hit the 40-win mark in 2022 – her most since 2018.


She’s happy to be back at the top of the sport after a few years of less than stellar results for a player of her caliber.

"This pressure is good,” she told WTA Insider on Tuesday. “If at the end of 2019 someone tells me in three years you're going to have the pressure to go to the WTA Finals to play, I would say are you kidding me? I cannot believe it. So far it's a very good problem to have."

Maria Sakkari scored a big win over Marta Kostyuk to temporarily move into a qualification slot. The Greek, who won 6-4 6-4, moves clear of Veronika Kudermetova, but the Russian can leap back in front of Sakkari with a win over Donna Vekic on Wednesday.

If Kudermetova and Sakkari each bow out in the same round, Kudermetova would be higher in the race.

13 players still have a shot to qualify for the last five available slots on the WTA Finals Fort Worth roster.

17 had a shot at the start of the week, but Petra Kvitova, Beatriz Haddad Maia, Ekaterina Alexandrova, and Barbora Krejcikova have all already been eliminated.


 

Latest News