And here it is again: the final chord of the season will be given from 22 to 29 October in Singapore with the final WTA tournament. As always, the top eight women's tennis players hope to win the unofficial world championship. The current winner, Dominika Cibulkova, is unable to defend her title - she did not qualify for the competition. Also among the participants there is no last year's finalist Angelique Kerber. Below is a brief analysis and an attempt to predict the chances of all eight tennis players in the upcoming competition.
Simona Halep
The newly minted first racket of the world, although she won only one title this year, was also able to break into the finals of Roland Garros, Cincinnati and Beijing. Participation in the decisive match in the Chinese capital, by the way, allowed her to become the new leader of the world women's tennis. Otherwise, the 2017 season performed by Halep cannot be called outstanding. At the Australian and US Opens, she lost in the first round, and at Wimbledon she was defeated in the quarterfinals by Johanna Konta. And, nevertheless, became the first racket of the world!
: 1 (Madrid)
Age: 26 years
A country: Romania
WTA: 3 (2014–2016)
Forecast: Halep has just won the first line in the world report card. In any case, we can predict her participation in the semifinals. At the same time, two competitors look, in our opinion, stronger than her.
Garbine Muguruza
Garbine Muguruza gives out so far best season in your career. She defeated former world number one Venus Williams in the Wimbledon final and also defeated Simona Halep in the final match of the tournament in Cincinnati. The Romanian, by the way, only two weeks ago was able to change the Spaniard as the best tennis player on the planet. On this moment Going head to head, Halep and Mugurusu are separated by only 40 WTA ranking points.
Tournaments won in the 2017 season: 2 (Wimbledon & Cincinnati)
Age: 24 years
A country: Spain
Past participation in the final tournamentWTA: 2 (2015–2016)
Forecast: In Cincinnati, Muguruza defeated Plishkova and Halep. The athlete from Spain is rightfully considered one of the favorites of the WTA final tournament after a strong season. Looks like one of the most likely participants in the Singapore final.
Karolina Pliskova
Pliskova is also delivering consistently good results this season, as evidenced in particular by her three tournament wins this year: in Brisbane, Doha and Eastbourne. However, what she undoubtedly lacked in 2017 was great success at TBSh. She reached the semi-finals of Roland Garros, in Melbourne and New York - to the quarter-finals, and at Wimbledon she completely failed in the second round. However, after Kerber dropped in the world rankings, the Czech immediately after the English Open became the first racket of the world for eight weeks. At the final competition in Singapore, she has a chance to regain her lost crown. In her favor, of course, will be the fact that hard is her favorite surface.
Tournaments won in the 2017 season: 3 (Brisbane, Doha and Eastbourne)
Age: 25 years
A country: Czech
Past participation in the final tournamentWTA: 1 (2016)
Forecast: At last year's draw, Pliskova was eliminated in the group stage, but this year she is clearly capable of more - in her best form, the Czech tennis player is an unconditional candidate for the final.
Elina Svitolina
The Ukrainian qualified for the WTA final for the first time. On the court, she shines, first of all, with her two-handed backhand. Her biggest successes this year are winning competitions in Dubai, Rome and Toronto. At the same time, she defeated Caroline Wozniacki twice in two sets and Simona Halep once in three sets. During the current season, she was already the third racket of the world and can always surprise. In addition, Svitolina has a chance to lead the world ranking at the end of the year, which, of course, will give her additional motivation.
Tournaments won in the 2017 season: 5 (Taipei, Dubai, Istanbul, Rome and Toronto)
Age: 23 years old
A country: Ukraine
Past participation in the final tournamentWTA: 0
Forecast: Among all the participants, the Ukrainian has the most trophies won this season. However, she lacks major success in the majors. Nevertheless, it seems to us a semi-finalist of the Singapore championship.
Venus Williams
37-year-old "grandmother" WTA Tour Venus Williams was able to get to the final tournament in Singapore without winning a single trophy in the 2017 season. And yet: on Australian Open and at Wimbledon she played in the finals, losing in Melbourne to her younger sister Serena, and in London to Garbiña Muguruza. Just this year, Williams participated in only 13 competitions. Like Roger Federer, who is almost equal in age to her, she tries to correctly distribute her forces. Her trump card in Singapore, of course, will be her rich experience, which none of the competitors has.
Tournaments won in the 2017 season: 0
Age: 37 years
A country: USA
Past participation in the final tournamentWTA: 4 (1999, 2002, 2008–2009)
Forecast: Most likely, she will be eliminated after the group stage. Williams didn't win a single tournament in 2017 and that will likely stay that way in Singapore as well. However, the very participation in the final championship of the season after an eight-year pause is already a success for the American tennis player.
Caroline Wozniacki
This season, Caroline Wozniacki has already taken part in 22 tournaments and in this sense is the opposite of the “little-played” Williams. However, at the same time, the Danes have only one trophy on their account - in Tokyo. Prior to this, Wozniacki had failed six times in the finals and only after that in October won the decisive match in the capital of Japan. In fact, she shows a fairly stable game in the 2017 season, but she often lacks quite a bit to outplay top opponents in major matches. Yes, and on TBSH best achievement in 2017 is reaching the quarterfinals of Roland Garros.
Tournaments won in the 2017 season: 1 (Tokyo)
Age: 27 years
A country: Denmark
Past participation in the final tournamentWTA: 4 (2009–2011 and 2014)
Forecast: Most likely, just like Williams, she will finish her performances in Singapore after the group stage. Most of the time, Wozniacki lets her opponents determine the course of the match, her game lacks weapons with which she could hit top opponents. Therefore, the final station in the WTA final tournament for the former world number one will be the group stage.
Elena Ostapenko
The Latvian, who is only 20 years old, is making real sensations this year. At the end of an outstanding season, she not only managed to win Roland Garros, beating Simona Halep in the final, but also became the first tennis player from Latvia to qualify for Singapore. Often for her the question arises as follows: all or nothing. This was very clearly seen in the decisive match of the French Open, in which at first, due to numerous unforced errors, she was inferior 4-6, 0-3, but then swept Halep off the court. So Ostapenko's game is very exciting! Although, of course, she lacks experience and resilience.
Tournaments won in the 2017 season: 2 (Roland Garros and Seoul)
Age: 20 years
A country: Latvia
Past participation in the final tournamentWTA: 0
Forecast: The youngest participant in the final tournament will undoubtedly try to annoy the representatives of the elite. But, nevertheless, the lack of experience, most likely, will play a cruel joke with her in the competition, and she will leave Singapore after the group round.
Carolyn Garcia
Caroline Garcia was the last to qualify for the final tournament of the year - it became clear just two weeks ago. She won two tournaments in a row - in Wuhan and then a week later in Beijing - and after Konta withdrew from the Kremlin Cup, the Frenchwoman secured her first place in the Singapore competition. In the decisive match of the Beijing competition, by the way, she managed to win in two sets over the world's first racket Simona Halep. Until 2017, she also performed very successfully in doubles. This year in Singapore, she can play in her free style.
Tournaments won in the 2017 season: 2 (Wuhan and Beijing)
Age: 24 years
A country: France
Past participation in the final tournamentWTA: 0
Forecast: Although the curve physical form and speaks in favor of Garcia and the Frenchwoman can boast of great success in doubles, the rest of the participants still have more experience. After the last tense weeks on the tour, she may well be underpowered, so she will most likely not make it past the group stage in Singapore.
GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE FINAL TOURNAMENTWTA
Location: Singapore
Prize fund: 7 million USD
Coating: hard
Last year's final: Dominika Cibulkova–Angelique Kerber 6-3, 6-4
Text: Daniil Salnikov
In the last week of October, the top eight tennis players gathered in Singapore, the Russian leaders in Vienna, and Federer again in Basel.
BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global
Prize fund: $ 7 000 00.
Coating: hard, room.
the date of the: October 22-29.
Time difference with Moscow: +5 hours.
Members Cast: Simona Halep (1), Garbine Muguruza (2), Karolina Pliskova (3), Elina Svitolina (4), Venus Williams (5), Carolina Wozniacki (6), Elena Ostapenko (7), Caroline Garcia (8).
Full list of participants.
Current winner: Dominika Cibulkova.
In Singapore, the final WTA championship will be played for the 48th time, it is held with the participation of the eight strongest tennis players in the world at the end of the season. For the first time the tournament was held in 1971, but in 1986 there were already two draws. The competition constantly changed its location - Houston, Boca Rayton, Los Angeles, New York, Oakland, Munich, Madrid, Doha and Istanbul. Since 2014, the competition of the eight strongest tennis players in the world has been played in Singapore, and the license belongs to him until 2018 inclusive. St. Petersburg, among other competitors, also claims to the tournament from 2019.
The record holder for the number of titles in the final WTA tournament is Martina Navratilova - eight. Steffi Graf and Serena Williams have five victories each, Chris Evert has four victories, Monica Seles and Kim Clijsters have three each. Of the Russians, the tournament once submitted to Maria Sharapova (2004), and she was also a finalist two more times (2007, 2012), like Vera Zvonareva (2008). After winning in 2014, Serena was selected to the top eight twice, but both times she refused to participate. In the current draw, in the absence of Sharapova, Serena and Azarenka, there is a large rotation of participants. There are three debutantes in the tournament at once - Svitolina, Ostapenko and Garcia. Karolina Pliskova, Muguruza and Halep have played between one and three of the last draws. Came back after two missed draws Caroline Wozniacki. And the 2008 champion and 2009 finalist Venus Williams has not played at all for the last 7 final tournaments. We also note that 7 out of 8 participants in the tournament in Singapore, according to its results, can become the first racket of the world. But this is a topic for a separate discussion.
According to the rules of the competition, the participants at the preliminary stage, following the results of the draw, were divided into two groups - four tennis players each. Red group - Halep, Svitolina, Wozniacki, Garcia; White group - Muguruza, Pliskova, V. Williams, Ostapenko. According to the results of the group round, the two best athletes go to the playoffs, where, starting from the semi-finals, the winner will be determined as a result.
Participants of the final WTA-2017 championship:
W. Williams - 4 tournaments, 11 wins / 5 losses, best result - title (2008);
Wozniacki - 4, 9/7, final (2010);
Halep - 3, 5/6, final (2014);
Muguruza - 2, 4/3, semi-finals (2015);
Kar.Pliskova - 1, 1/2, group;
Svitolina - debut;
Ostapenko - debut;
Garcia - debut.
Prize fund: € 2 621 850.
Coating: hard, room.
the date of the: October 23-29.
Time difference with Moscow
Members People: Alexander Zverev (4), Dominic Thiem (7), Pablo Carregno-Busta (10), Kevin Anderson (15), Sam Querrey (16), John Isner (17), Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (18), Luca Puy ( 22), Karen Khachanov (32), Andrey Rublev (37), Grigor Dimitrov (WC), Ernest Gulbis (WC).
Refused to participate Milos Raonic (11), Tomas Berdych (19), Gael Monfils (36), Ivo Karlovic (49).
Current winner: Andy Murray.
The tournament in Vienna has been played since 1974 in the arena "Winner Stadthalle". This is the home stadium of the Austrian national ice hockey team, in addition, the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 was held here. Since 2009, after the calendar reform, the tournament in the Austrian capital has been classified as ATP-250. However, in 2015, he exchanged licenses with a higher-status tournament in Valencia - ATP-500. And with next year the Spanish tournament ceased to exist altogether. Many won the competition in Vienna famous tennis players- Goran Ivanisevic, Andre Agassi, Boris Becker, Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Juan Martin del Potro, Andy Murray. The Briton did not come to defend the title, because he could not recover from the injury. Under the first two numbers, Alexander Zverev and Dominic Thiem are seeded. Two Russians will also play in the competition - Karen Khachanov and Andrey Rublev.
Prize fund: € 2 291 860.
Coating: hard, room.
the date of the: October 23-29.
Time difference with Moscow: -1 hour (October 29: -2 hours).
Members: Roger Federer (2), Marin Cilic (5), David Goffin (12), Roberto Bautista-Agut (13), Jack Juice (21), Juan Martin del Potro (24), Mischa Zverev (27), Adrian Mannarino (31).
Refused to participate People: Rafael Nadal (1), Nick Kyrgios (20), Gilles Muller (23).
Current winner: Marin Cilic.
The Swiss Indoor Championships are held in Münchenstein, a suburb of Basel, at the St. Jacobshall. The unsurpassed record holder here is the local favorite Roger Federer - 7 titles. This year he is seeded at number one, because after a trip to Asia, Rafael Nadal decided to withdraw from the competition.
Wonderful things are happening in Russian tennis. Moscow and St. Petersburg staged a race: who has more tournaments. The city on the Neva led 2:1, but from next year there will be equality 2:2. Peter has a male St. Petersburg Open and Women's Ladies Trophy. Moscow is rightfully proud of the Kremlin Cup, where both men and women play, and now it will also receive a separate competition for ladies - the July International tournament on the open clay courts of the Juan Antonio Samaranch National Tennis Center of Russia.
Why such generosity of the WTA? Everything is simple. The organizers of the Moscow tournament bought the license from the competition in Bostad (Sweden), which took place in the last week of July. You can’t call this place convenient on the calendar. The new Moscow tournament will be held on clay right before the start of the American series on hard, where all the strongest tennis players will probably go. It is unlikely that Maria Sharapova will want to play on the ground before this, but the organizers of the new tournament promise to do everything possible to bring her back to Moscow.
results
WTA Final Tournament - 2017 (Singapore)
The prize fund is $7,000,000. Hard. Group stage. 3rd round
White group. Ostapenko (Latvia, 7) - Kar. Plishkova (Czech Republic, 3) 6:3, 6:1; W. Williams (USA, 5) - Muguruza (Spain, 2) 7:5, 6:4
Final position: 1. Plishkova (Czech Republic) - 2 wins / 1 loss; 2. W. Williams (USA) - 2/1; 3. Muguruza (Spain) - 1/2; 4. Ostapenko (Latvia) - 1/2
The final tournament of the year starts in Singapore on Sunday WTA, in which eight of the strongest tennis players in the world ranking traditionally take part.
Red group:
(Romania, 1), (Ukraine, 4), (Denmark, 6), (France, 8).
White group:
(Spain, 2), (Czech Republic, 3), (USA, 5), (Latvia, 7).
The top two tennis players from each group will advance to the semi-finals.
NEW FACES
Three debutants of the final tournament came to Singapore at once - Svitolina, Ostapenko and Garcia. But if the Ukrainian has progressed and consistently performed throughout the year, gaining a foothold in the elite in the spring, then the appearance of the last two is an absolute surprise.
20-year-old Ostapenko conquered everyone by winning sensationally Roland Garros . But, appearing out of nowhere, after this victory, she did not go anywhere. On the contrary, it continued to show very decent results. Ostapenko reached the quarterfinals of Wimbledon, where she lost to Venus Williams, and after a not very successful performance in the American series of tournaments (defeats in the first round in Toronto and Cincinnati, 3rd round US Open ) played great in Asia - won the tournament in Seoul and was in the semi-finals in Wuhan and Beijing. In August, Ostapenko said that her goal for this season was to enter the top 10 in the rankings and get into the final tournament. No sooner said than done. But the Latvian tennis player is not one of those who will be satisfied with just participating in Singapore.
As for Garcia, the 23-year-old Frenchwoman showed herself great at Roland Garros , where she reached the quarterfinals, and then went into the shadows, being considered just a strong player of the top 20 level, but no more. But at the Asian series of tournaments in September-October, she performed simply phenomenally. First there was a quarter-final in Tokyo, and then victories in Wuhan and Beijing. Moreover, on the way to the title in the capital of China, Garcia defeated the 3rd racket of the world at that time, Svitolina, and the 2nd, Halep.
But, of course, injuries and being in the top 10 of the world ranking helped Garcia get to Singapore.
WHO WILL BE THE FIRST?
The main intrigue of the tournament is simple and exciting at the same time - who will become the first racket of the world at the end of the year? When, having won the Australian Open, she went on maternity leave and vacated the throne (although the great American threatens to return in January), the real era of palace coups began. The leaders changed as often as ever (the last time something like this was in 2002) - the first in the ranking were Pliskova, Muguruza and, finally, after the tournament in Beijing, Halep.
Incredibly, seven people have a chance to finish the season in first place! Actually, these are all the participants of the tournament with the exception of Garcia. And given that since 1975, when this rating format was introduced, only 12 tennis players can boast of being No. 1 at the end of the year, the girls have a chance to make history.
1. Halep - 5675 points
2. Muguruza - 5635
3. Plishkova - 5105
4. Svitolina - 5000
5. Williams - 4642
6. Wozniacki - 4640
7. Ostapenko - 4510
Whoever wins all matches in the tournament will receive 1500 points. The tennis player who won one victory in the group, but at the same time reached the semi-finals (this is possible) and then won the tournament - 1250. There are a lot of layouts, and every match will matter - and in this case this is not a figure of speech. It is clear that the chances of the same Ostapenko are rather purely theoretical - she needs to go through without defeat herself and expect that Halep and Muguruza will completely fail. But there hasn't been such a twisted intrigue at the final tournament of the year for a long time. And you need to enjoy this moment while the great and terrible Serena is babysitting her daughter.
Singapore, 21.10-27.10.2017 Women (WTA), hard, Final Championship, 8 participants.
Announcement
The main competition of the year for women will be Final tournament in Singapore. It is called the final, although after it the season will continue for another month. But the best tennis players will be able to go on vacation with a clear conscience. So we suggest you take the opportunity to watch the best of the best for the last time in 2017 (and, of course, bet on one of them for a high odds that you will not see equal during the season).
Results of the first days
The tournament started on Sunday and so far only two fights in the white group have ended. It makes no sense to wait and see who will take the lead, because the tournament is already fleeting. Let's try to predict the winner in advance, especially since the possibilities of all the finalists are well known to us.
Quotes as of 22.10.2017
All odds given below are set by BC Marathon as of 10/22/2017, 19:00 Moscow time. In the white group, the second meeting has just ended, and the office has not yet had time to set new quotes.
Rating
Forecast
white group
W. Williams. The American in the first (yesterday) fight showed complete helplessness against Pliskova. After the 2:6 2:6 fiasco, Venus said that the courts in Singapore are too slow and do not allow her to show her best qualities. But it is believed that the elder Williams plays smart tennis. Her straight-line opponent, who relies heavily on the first serve and powerful flat shots during the play, slow coverage should have interfered to a much greater extent. Apparently, the point is not in coverage, but in the fact that an older American does not take out competitions with young elite opponents. Next, Venus will have to enter the court against Mugurusa and Ostapenko, tennis players are even sharper and more explosive, moving fast and there are no chances at all.
E. Ostapenko. The Latvian has also shown that she is still uncompetitive at the elite level. She has a resounding success to her credit (the title at Roland Garros 2017), but, apart from this conquest, Elena has not demonstrated top-ten games anywhere. So far, she has yet to prove that success in Paris is not an accident, that she does not belong to a huge army of girls who have not been able to confirm the pattern of the only success with subsequent stable performances (such as Puig, Schiavone, Bartolli, etc.). Lena just lacks stability. She started her final hard season with failures, losing in the first round to Toronto and Cincinnati. Moreover, the oppositionists there were frankly weak - Lepchenko and Krunich. This was followed by a departure in the third round at the US OPEN. The Asian series was much more successful for the Latvian: one title in Seoul (however, the rivals there were of the level of Luksika Kumhun and Nao Hibino) and two semi-finals in Yuhan and Beijing (in the first of them they even managed to beat Mugurusa). But all these were competitions, unimportant for the leaders, who did not want to get injured before the Final and quickly merged. Singapore is a completely different song. The first match here against Muguruza was lost with complete evidence both in terms of the score and the game. Next, Ostapenko will meet with Williams and Plishkova. And for a young Latvian, it will be a huge success if in the end she manages to take at least one point.
K. Pliskova. The Czech woman was the least successful of the eight in the second half of the season, so even against Williams, the bookmakers assessed her chances with caution, believing them to be approximately equal. But the defeat of the pensioner immediately lifted Plishkova to the second line of the rating list. We are not inclined to overestimate the possibilities that demonstrate primitive tennis and have obvious weak spots(in particular, she is not fast enough and hardy enough, often Caroline is enough for only one set). If we evaluate the results shown during the current hard season, we will see a dual picture. On the one hand, Pliskova has an excellent balance of wins and losses (+14 -6). On the other hand, almost all confrontations with worthy opponents ended sadly for her. In particular, the Czech lost to Kirsta, Barty, Kerber, Vandeweghe, Muguruza and Wozniacki. At the same time, consider that there were no victories over elite girls at all (Wozniacki's revenge, and even, perhaps, the triumph in the meeting with Pavlyuchenkova can be attributed to the category of memorable successes). The defeat of Williams impressed, but it is not known what was more here - her own skill or the weakness of the oppositionist.
G. Muguruza. The Spaniard tore everyone at Wimbledon, proving that she had accustomed herself to the idea that she really was an elite tennis player. It cannot be said that Garbi's further path was sinless. In Stanford, the Spaniard lost to Keys in the semifinals, in Toronto she was beaten in the third round by Svitolina. Finally, Cincinnati managed to take the title, taking revenge on the Keys, and at the same time burying Pliskova, Halep and Kuznetsova. Then there was the fourth round at the US OPEN, where Kvitova had to give way, plus the third stage in Toronto (there Muguruza defeated Garcia, but could not resist Wozniacki, having suffered a humiliating defeat 0:6 2:6). Finally, the Chinese voyage ended in a complete fiasco. Departure in the third round from Ostapenko and draining the mediocre Strykova at the start of Beijing (however, there it smacked of a frank surrender of the game, since Garbine refused when the score was 1:6 0:2). If you evaluate the results in historical sequence, at first glance it will seem as if they are descending. But in fact, everything can be explained by purposeful preparation for the Final. In Singapore, a convincing revenge has already been taken from Ostapenko, and the bookmakers were not slow to elevate the Spaniard to the top of their preferences. We tend to agree with them. At the very least, Garbi must leave the group.
Red group
K. Wozniacki. The Dane had a brilliant season, approaching the best examples of herself. But even so, she could not rise above the sixth line in the classification. It is not surprising that in the next fight against Svitolina, the Danish beauty is put as an outsider, offering a quote of 2.41 (against 1.65 for her opponent). If we take purely technical results (+14 -6), everything looks relatively good. In Tokyo, they even managed to win the title, leaving Cibulkova and Mugurusu with a nose. But in general, there are more defeats from elite rivals than victories. Of the successes in meetings with strong girls, in addition to those already mentioned, one can note only the victory over Pliskova in Toronto in early August. At the same time, Karo was inferior to Svitolina, the same Plishkova, Makarova, Kvitova and even Sakkari (the Dane refused to fight Cabrera at the extreme competition in Hong Kong). Once in the death group, it is unlikely that Wozniacki can count on getting out of it.
S. Halep. As the Romanian herself recently put it, it will be difficult for her, because she will have to run a lot (in the company of such strong opponents). In the summer, Simona resorted to the help of a psychologist, and this had a positive effect on the results. Previously, Halep could not take a single serious title, losing at the decisive moment. For example, at Roland Garros, she was a clear favorite against Ostapenko, but as a result, she showed complete helplessness and a lack of understanding of how to act against this particular opponent. After working with a psychologist, the Romanian reached the first rating line, but this did not help her learn how to win decisive confrontations. In particular, in recent months, Simona twice found herself in the finals, but each time the title floated away from their hands. In Cincinnati it was destroyed by Muguruza 1:6 0:6, and recently in Beijing it was beaten by Garcia 4:6 6:7. Between these two relatively successful competitions there were departures in the first rounds to the US OPEN (0:3 from Sharapova) and Yukhan (1:6 2:6 from Kasatkina). The reason lies on the surface - Simone prefers clay courts, and on hard (especially fast American and Chinese) she feels out of place. We believe that in the company with Garcia, Svitolina and Wozniacki, the Romanian only has to fight for third place. The first fight against the Frenchwoman is scheduled for today, 10/23/2017 at 14:30 Moscow time, and it will be the moment of truth for Halep. Bookmakers consider Simona the favorite, offering to play it for 1.65, but all the experts who managed to express their opinion unanimously say that Garcia should become the winner here.
C. Garcia. The Frenchwoman had the best time in the final part of the season. Two victories in a row at the extreme competitions (In Beijing and Yuhan), where Halep, Kvitova, Svitolina, Kerber, Cibulkova, Barty were defeated, testify to the excellent form that Karolina has gained. Only the week before last she withdrew from the tournament, and last week she was denied a Wild Card by the organizers of the Kremlin Cup. Thus, the Frenchwoman could well lose her excellent shape in two weeks of inactivity. Let's not forget that in the early part of the hard season, Garcia performed quite averagely, in none of the four competitions, not advancing beyond the third round. So, although some experts rushed to write her down as the main favorite of the group, Carolina has yet to prove that she can take the titles for which the strongest opponents are seriously fighting (winning not only in provincial Chinese cities).
E. Svitolina. In early October, the Ukrainian climbed to a record third place in the ranking, in the end she slowed down a bit, due to the fact that in Hong Kong she refused to enter the second round fight and missed a fair amount of rating points(as a result, Pavlyuchenkova became a triumph there). In general, after the US OPEN, the Ukrainian has played only one full-fledged tournament. In Beijing, she reached the third round, defeating Zhu Lin, Ashleigh Barty and Elena Vesnina. At the same time, the duel with Garcia again clearly outlined the main weakness of the Ukrainian - the inability to take decisive fights in which the opponent desperately resists and does not want to concede. Svitolina definitely needs to work with a psychologist, otherwise the most talented of the young tennis players (Elina, 23 years old) runs the risk of never winning anything serious, like Halep, Radwansky or Wozniacki. In general, the hard season went well for Svitolina (+12 -5), especially his very start, when he won the title in Toronto (moreover, he beat Muguruza, Wozniacki, Halep, Kasatkina, Williams). But after that, Elina had practically no serious opponents, and when they did meet, the Ukrainian suffered defeat. There are doubts that she is now in perfect shape, but we still dare to put it in the first position in the group.
Conclusion
In our opinion, from the white subgroup they will make their way to the semi-finals Pliskov and Muguruza(here everything is quite transparent, the rivals are clearly inferior to them in the class). As for the red subgroup, here the forces of the entire quartet are approximately equal and it is rather difficult to predict the semi-finalists. We still prefer best player last month Garcia and the most talented of those gatheredSvitolina. If everything goes as predicted, then Svitolina-Pliskova and Muguruza-Garcia will meet in ½. However, the girls from the red subgroup look stronger in any combination (even if Wozniacki and Halep make it to the semi-finals), so they will play the main cup among themselves.
Final forecast: in the final fight, Garcia will confront Svitolina, and here again the Ukrainian should be stronger. She has long been among the elite tennis players, and the Finals, unlike even the Grand Slams, are never won by random individuals or upstarts who flashed at a couple of tournaments in a season.
