Svitolina reaches WTA Finals championship match for third time

Ukrainian tennis player Elina Svitolina (ranked 6th) has reached the final of the WTA Finals, the season-ending tournament for the top women's players in the world. In the semifinal she beat Czech player Linda Noskova (ranked 8th) 6-4, 6-1. According to the source, it is her third career final at this event.

Noskova had won her group and was the favorite in the semifinal, with bookmakers offering odds of 1.59 on a Czech victory. Noskova is close to turning 22, while the Ukrainian is 32.

How the match went

Svitolina dropped serve in the opening game of the first set, but then broke the Czech's serve three times and took the set 6-4. In the second set the Ukrainian was clearly stronger, winning the points 27-15 and the set 6-1.

The statistics show Svitolina slightly trailed in points won on first serve (71% to 75%), but led in first-serve percentage (65% to 40%), points won on second serve (56% to 23%), total points (63-41) and break points (5 of 11 against 1 of 4). Her aces-to-double-faults ratio was 4-2, against 2-11 for Noskova. Winners to unforced errors stood at 20-18 for Svitolina and 12-27 for Noskova.

Earlier results at the tournament

Svitolina is playing in the WTA Finals for the fourth time. She has already won the title (2018) and played in one more final (2019).

In the other semifinal, Mirra Andreeva (ranked 3rd) beat American Jessica Pegula (ranked 5th) 6-3, 6-4. The previous night, the Latvian-Taiwanese doubles pair of Jelena Ostapenko and Hsieh Su-wei failed to advance from their group.