Mirra Andreeva won 11 matches in a row as she beat world number two Aryna Sabalenka to reach the last four matches of the WTA Finals.
Andreeva, the French Open champion, led 4-1 in the first set before producing superb tennis and taking advantage of an increasingly erratic performance from Sabalenka.
The 19-year-old Russian then cruised to a 6-4 6-0 victory over four-time major singles winner Sabalenka.
“I’ll be honest, I feel like Aryna didn’t have the best day,” Andreeva told Sky Sports.
“I feel like I can’t really take all the credit today – I feel like it’s not very fair in some ways.
“I’m just happy. I had a goal in front of me, I’m committed no matter what and I control the things I can control.”
As poor as Sabalenka was, Andreeva produced a mature and intelligent performance to put her out of the match.
She used looping high balls to initially wrong-foot Sabalenka, then showed off her easy power, hitting 16 winners against just six unforced errors and creating brilliant angles from the baseline.
The only problem came when she found herself down 15-30 while serving for the first set. However, Andreeva calmly hit three aces in a row to take the lead and never looked back.
Second-seeded Sabalenka had tape on her knee, but it didn’t seem to bother her – it was more of a performance similar to some of the meltdowns she’s had this year.
After leading a double break, Sabalenka won only 10 more points in the match as Andreeva dominated.
The Belarusian made 23 unforced errors and failed to produce a single ace at Indian Wells, where she won the WTA Tour title earlier this year.
Sabalenka lost deciding sets at Roland Garros and Berlin by a score of 6-0 this year, but it was much quicker than those matches.
This result means that the winner of the final group match on Friday between Sabalenka and Elina Svitolina will advance to the semi-finals, while Andreeva will qualify as the group winner.
Gn sports
