After six successive straight-set final defeats, Caroline Wozniacki finally won her 26th career WTA title by claiming the Toray Pan Pacific Open. The Dane defeated Russia’s Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova 6-0 7-5 to defend her title in Tokyo and confirm her place in the end of season finals in Singapore.
Embed from Getty ImagesWozniacki didn’t face a single break point in Sunday’s 74 minute final, winning an impressive 71% points on her first serve and 75% points on her second serve. More impressively, the former world number one hit six aces and no double faults.
Pavlyuchenkova struggled to build on her impressive run in Tokyo and clearly struggled in the first set, winning just 10 points. The Russian had outlasted a re-vitalised Angelique Kerber in the semi finals, but couldn’t break through Wozniacki’s consistent serve in Sunday’s final.
After saving match points in her quarter final against Dominika Cibulkova, Wozniacki stunned world number one Garbine Muguruza to make the final and her run in Tokyo makes her a real contender in Singapore. The victory in Tokyo also means Wozniacki maintains her impressive record on the WTA tour, having now won a title for ten consecutive years.
Ostapenko battles to victory in Seoul
Over in South Korea, Jelena Ostapenko took her first WTA tour title (outside of Grand Slams, of course!) with victory at the Korea Open in Seoul. The top seeded Latvian came from a set down to defeat unseeded Brazilian Beatriz Haddad Maia 6-7 6-1 6-4.
Ostapenko struggled in a final she was expected to take easily and lost a tight first set tie break 7-5. However the Latvian rallied back in the second set in just 28 minutes, losing just four points on serve. In the final set, both players looked shaky on serve, trading an astonishing seven breaks before Ostapenko served out to love to take the crown.
Embed from Getty ImagesThe victory in Seoul moves the Latvian up to seventh in the Race to Singapore, climbing above Britain’s Johanna Konta who really needs a good run in Wuhan to remove any doubt of missing out for the second year running.
Race to Singapore standings
- Garbine Muguruza 5491
- Simona Halep 5026
- Karolina Pliskova 4896
- Elina Svitolina 4815
- Caroline Wozniacki 4620
- Venus Williams 4612
- Jelana Ostapenko 3772
- Johanna Konta 3655
- Kristina Mladenovic 2876
- Svetlana Kuznetsova 2847
- CoCo Vandeweghe 2754
- Sloane Stephens 2712
The Big Racket 