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Swiatek, who improved to 2-0 in the event, wrapped up first
place in the Tracy Austin Group. The other semifinal berth from
the group will come down to the last day of round-robin action
on Friday.
Eighth-seeded Daria Kasatkina of Russia won the other Thursday
match 7-6 (6), 6-3 over fourth-seeded Coco Gauff of the United
States. Kasatkina and Garcia are both 1-1, meaning their Friday
matchup will determine the group's second playoff bid.
Gauff fell to 0-2 and was eliminated from contention.
The season's eight top players were divided into the Nancy
Richey Group and the Tracy Austin Group for round-robin play.
The winner of each group will play the runner-up from the
opposite group in the semifinals Sunday, with the victor in
those two matches heading to the final on Monday.
The prize pool is $5 million, and an unbeaten champion would
earn $1.68 million.
Swiatek dominated the key moments against Garcia, saving four of
the five break points on her own serve and converting five of
her six break-point opportunities.
Asked how she dealt with Garcia's game, Swiatek joked, "Don't
cry? Because, yeah, she was putting a lot of pressure and
putting a lot of speed on her balls. I was ready for that."
Garcia said of Swiatek, "The thing is: You have to take some
time away from her. Try to be aggressive, to push her out of her
comfort zone. But most of the time, she does it better than you.
She's really strong, really solid, doesn't give you a lot of
unforced errors.
"As soon as she gets a little bit more space or more of an
angle, she makes you feel you're slower, playing bad, whatever."
Kasatkina and Gauff each lost the game while serving for the
first set, leading to the tiebreaker. When Kasatkina wound up
winning that set, that was a superb omen for her: She ended up
improving to 29-0 this year after going up by a set.
While Gauff finished with a 25-10 edge in winners, she more than
offset that my committing 34 errors to Kasatkina's 10.
The Nancy Richey Group concludes on Friday with No. 2 Ons Jabeur
of Tunisia, No. 3 Jessica Pegula of the United States and No. 7
Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus all vying to join No. 5 Maria Sakkari
in the semifinals. Sabalenka (1-1) will oppose Pegula (0-2)
before Sakkari (2-0) squares off with Jabeur (1-1).
WTA Finals group standings
Nancy Richey Group
1. Maria Sakkari, 2-0
T2. Aryna Sabalenka, 1-1
T2. Ons Jabeur, 1-1
4. Jessica Pegula, 0-2
Tracy Austin Group
T1. Iga Swiatek, 2-0
T1. Caroline Garcia, 1-1
T3. Daria Kasatkina, 1-1
T3. Coco Gauff, 0-2
--Field Level Media
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