Petra Kvitova and Agnieszka Radwanska, the pair of players who lost two of their three matches in group play, have made it to the WTA Finals title match at the expense of the two players who had won all three of their round robin clashes.
Borrowing Kvitova’s own description of the situation, that is just “weird”.
For the first-time ever, a player who has gone 1-2 in the group stage will lift the WTA Finals trophy.
Kvitova, who had been dragging herself through her matches all week as she continues to recover from glandular fever, came out firing against Maria Sharapova yesterday to beat the Russian 6-3, 7-6 (3) despite trailing 1-5 in the second set.
Earlier, Radwanska claimed her first win over Garbine Muguruza in five meetings in 2015, by defeating the Spanish world No3 6-7 (5), 6-3, 7-5.
Radwanska, who is through to the WTA Finals final for the first time, will today take on Kvitova, a champion in 2011.
A mere 24 hours earlier, Kvitova was addressing reporters in the interview room coming off a White Group defeat to Muguruza and knowing her only slim chance of advancing to the semis was a straight sets win from her fellow Czech Lucie Safarova.
Little did she know that Safarova would deliver and instead of packing her bags and heading to Prague, Kvitova returned to the courts yesterday and beat Sharapova to reach an unlikely final.
“It's very weird, I have to say,” said Kvitova frankly.
“Yesterday I was talking about my season, and it's still not over yet. But I'm happy for that for sure. I mean, I couldn't really believe that I going to play the semi-final; now I'm the final, which is very interesting.
“I'm really looking forward. I think Aga (Radwanska) is kind of in the same situation, so it's going to be interesting.”
Sharapova echoed Kvitova’s thoughts after suffering her first defeat in four matches in Singapore this week.
“I think it's a unique situation and doesn't happen often probably, but that's, I guess, what makes the round robin interesting,” said Sharapova, who will face Kvitova again in the Fed Cup final in two weeks’ time in Prague.
Radwanska too needed help from Sharapova to advance and the crafty Polish capitalised on her opportunity.
She thwarted a Muguruza comeback in both the second and third sets to finally end a four-match winning streak to the Spaniard.
A teary-eyed Radwanska spoke to the crowd on court and later explained why it was such an emotional victory for her.
“Everything. I was just so happy to get through that match. I didn't really expect to be in the semis after the first losses and now it's the final. So that was really big match. Well, a lot of emotion during that match I think all three hours. I'm just so relieved that it's over and I could win that match,” she said.
Her coach, Tomasz Wiktorowski told Sport360: "She just got to the Masters final so it’s a pretty emotional moment in her career. She tried already two times and she lost those two matches. That was a great fight, first of all she got to the final. Second thing she did a great job and she passed through the group after an amazing match against Halep. And she beat such a great player who is in amazing shape this year like Garbine Muguruza. So we have more than one reason actually to be emotional after this match."
Muguruza had revealed that her nickname for Radwanska is “La Profesora”, paying tribute to the Pole’s skilful shots and cerebral game. Radwanska laughed when told about that nickname and said she’s been called that before by Flavia Pennetta and her coach. Asked to pick a nickname to describe Muguruza, Radwanska said: “A bomb, because she's very explosive, especially from every shot.”
In the final today, Radwanska faces another bomb, except Kvitova is an explosive that has a random trigger; you never know when it will go off.
“We play pretty much on every Championship (WTA Finals) in the group, so for the first time we going to play if the final. It's always great matches against her. Really I have nothing to lose. I just hope I can play the same great tennis I was playing today,” said Radwanska, who trails Kvitova 2-6 head-to-head but is 2-2 against her in year-end Championship matches.
On her part, Sharapova was still pleased with how she competed on her comeback tournament, coming off a lengthy injury layoff, but was disappointed to blow a 5-1 lead in the second set.
“I felt like I took my foot off the gas. Started the second set aggressive in the court forcing her to go for a little much, and then felt like I backed up a little bit. I gave her more time, more angles, and she took advantage of that,” said the five-time grand slam champion.
