WTA Finals 2019: Karolina Pliskova outguns Simona Halep to leave Wimbledon champion to reflect on mixed year

For a player who claimed 18 titles in her previous six seasons, winning just one tournament in 2019 represents a meagre return. Just as well, then, for Simona Halep that the lone winner’s trophy she has from this year is her personal replica of the Venus Rosewater Dish.

Halep’s last chance of adding to the Wimbledon title she won with her stunning victory over Serena Williams on Centre Court nearly four months ago ended when she was beaten here on Friday night by Karolina Pliskova in the concluding round-robin match at the Shiseido WTA Finals.

In a winner-takes-all meeting to decide the last semi-final berth at these season-ending championships, Pliskova won 6-0, 2-6, 6-4 to secure a meeting on Saturday with the world No 1, Ashleigh Barty, who is the only player above her in the rankings and the only current or former Grand Slam champion left in the competition. In the other semi-final Elina Svitolina will continue the defence of her title against Belinda Bencic.

Halep’s Wimbledon triumph followed what had been a moderate clay-court season by her own high standards and since then she has won two matches in a row only once. In recent weeks she has had to deal with a back problem which meant that she arrived here with limited expectations.

Nevertheless, the return of Darren Cahill to her entourage this week had provided Halep with renewed motivation, the Australian coach having taken a sabbatical from the end of last year in order to spend more time with his family.

Pliskova’s season has been in contrast to Halep’s in that the 27-year-old Czech has won four titles and performed consistently through the year without reaching a Grand Slam final. The slow surface here at the Shenzhen Bay Sports Centre has not helped the more attacking players, but the 6ft 1in Pliskova, a big server who makes up for her comparative lack of mobility with the purity of her ball-striking, found the power to break down Halep’s defences when it mattered.

Pliskova took the first set in just 20 minutes, dropping only two points on her serve as Halep struggled to find a foothold in the match. The Romanian finally got on the scoreboard when she broke early in the second set. Although Halep quickly gave up the break, it was clear that her confidence had been restored.

Dealing with Pliskova’s serve is always a challenge – she has hit more aces than any other player on the women’s tour this year – but Halep levelled the match with two more breaks of serve. She secured the first with a winning volley after chasing down a drop shot and the second with a thumping backhand winner down the line.

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By the time she had raced into a 2-0 lead at the start of the third set Halep had won six games in a row, but Pliskova, showing great resilience, fought back. By now both players were hitting top gear and at 2-2 Pliskova held serve by winning the best game of the match, taking the last two points with successive winners down the line.

In going 5-2 up Pliskova had won five games in succession, only for Halep to reduce the arrears to 5-4. Serving to stay in the match, however, Halep went 30-40 down with a careless backhand and then watched powerless as a Pliskova drive volley hit the top of the net and trickled over on to the other side of the court. It was a cruel way for a player’s season to end.

Pliskova, who is through to the semi-finals at this tournament for the third year in a row, said: “I think I did a good job overall through the whole match, just going for it. I think this was my reward.”

Halep, who admitted she had not played her best tennis, was asked about the strong words Cahill had for her when he came on court. “I’m pretty sure I deserved that because I was not calm,” Halep said. “I changed something in my attitude. Everyone knows that I’m working on that.”

The Romanian said the biggest lesson she had learned in 2019 was that she needed to be more consistent in her matches and in practice but added: “I have done a great job, even if it was not very good year. I’ve won Wimbledon, which makes a great year in the end. I’m not disappointed with myself and with the year. I’m looking forward for the next one.”

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Svitolina continued her remarkable winning run in the tournament when she beat Sofia Kenin 7-5, 7-6. It was a dead rubber, Svitolina having already qualified as group winner, though there was still plenty of prize money at stake, with the winner of the match adding $305,000 (about £235,000) to their earnings at the tournament.

Having won all five of her matches at the event last year, Svitolina claimed her ninth victory in succession at the year-end finals despite a gritty performance by Kenin, an alternate who had replaced the injured Bianca Andreescu. Kenin had two set points in the tie-break at the end of the second set and Svitolina needed six match points before closing out her victory at 12-10.

Bencic, who is playing in this tournament for the first time, has won two of her three meetings with Svitolina, though the Ukrainian won their most recent encounter in Canada this summer. Barty has won three of her five matches against Pliskova, including their one encounter this year at the Miami Open.