WORLD No. 1 Ashleigh Barty was upset by late substitute Kiki Bertens 6-3, 3-6, 4-6 at the WTA Finals on Tuesday. Bertens arrived at the elite tournament in Shenzhen as an alternate, and has suddenly jumped into title contention with the other seven players in the draw. The Dutchwoman took the place of Naomi Osaka, who withdrew from the finals earlier Tuesday with a right shoulder injury ahead of her second round-robin match. The second singles of the day went in Belinda Bencic’s favor when she outlasted Petra Kvitova 6-3, 1-6, 6-4. Swiss Bencic, in her WTA Finals debut, decisively broke her Czech opponent in the ninth game of the third set. The Bencic win means all four players in the red group are still in contention for semifinals action. The red group standings find Bencic and Barty at 1-1, Kvitova at 0-2, and Bertens at 1-0 going into the last round-robin matches. With little notice she’d be playing, Bertens earned her first career victory over Barty in five matches played. Despite the loss, Barty officially secured the year-end No. 1 ranking. She’s the first Australian woman to earn that distinction. Only Czech Karolina Pliskova and Japan’s Osaka had an opportunity to prevent Barty from finishing the season as the year-end No. 1. They both had to win the title in Shenzhen with a perfect record in the round-robin. Pliskova lost to Svitolina in her opening round-robin match in the purple group Monday. In the later match, Bencic fought back from a second set spiral to beat Kvitova in 1 hour and 47 minutes. It kept her tournament hopes alive after she had lost her opening match to Barty. “I was proud that I was able to block away her big shots,” Bencic said. (SD-Agencies) |