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After struggling to find her rhythm early on
against the big-hitting lefty, Swiatek crushed an overhead to
set up a break point, which she converted on her opponent's
backhand error to cut the deficit to 5-3 and seize the momentum.
Vondrousova served for the set a second time at 5-4 but Swiatek
broke again with a precise backhand winner up the line for 5-5
as she began to take control of the match, constructing points
from the baseline and cutting down on her errors.
Swiatek completed the first set comeback on a double fault and a
disillusioned Vondrousova went quietly in the second set.
Although she defended her title at the French Open for her
fourth Grand Slam title, 2023 has been something of a
disappointment for Swiatek, who did not get past the quarters of
any of the other majors and lost her world number one ranking.
She came into her third WTA Finals with a ton of momentum,
however, after winning her first WTA 1000 title of the season in
Beijing, and has a chance to retake the top spot from Aryna
Sabalenka in Cancun.
Vondrousova, who made her top-10 debut after emerging as the
surprise winner of Wimbledon, is making her first appearance at
the season-ending Finals, which features the top eight singles
players and doubles teams in the world.
In the other Group B match-up of the evening, American U.S. Open
champion Coco Gauff needed just 56 minutes to defeat Ons Jabeur
6-0 6-1 in a rain-delayed clash, making for the fourth
straight-set result in the singles tournament so far.
Gauff, who is seeded third in the tournament, will face Swiatek
in her next match on Wednesday.
(Reporting by Rory Carroll in Los Angeles; Editing by
Muralikumar Anantharaman and Michael Perry)
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