Svitolina ends Sabalenka’s WTA Finals hopes

Detailed summary

Indian Wells: Aryna Sabalenka s season ended in disappointment after Elina Svitolina defeated the former world No. 1 to book her place in the semi fin...

Indian Wells: Aryna Sabalenka’s season ended in disappointment after Elina Svitolina defeated the former world No. 1 to book her place in the semi-finals of the WTA Finals.

Sabalenka showed her frustration by smashing her racquet and crouching at the back of the court as her hopes of reaching the last four slipped away.

The Belarusian recovered from a late collapse in the opening set to force a decider but lost the final six games to suffer a 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 defeat.

The loss came just two days after the four-time Grand Slam champion suffered a heavy defeat to Mirra Andreeva, losing the final 11 games of that match.

Svitolina will face Czech world No. 8 Linda Noskova in the semi-finals after finishing second behind Andreeva in the group.

Svitolina hadn’t beaten Sabalenka since Strasbourg in 2020. Now the 2018 champion is back in the semifinals in her first appearance at the year-end event since 2019, and for the first time after losing her opening match.

Their most recent meeting was just two months ago in Shenzhen, where Noskova clinched the Billie Jean King Cup trophy for Czechia with a 6-3, 7-6(5) defeat of Svitolina in the final.

Noskova also won both of their outdoor hard-court meetings in 2024 -- at the Australian Open (via retirement) and in Monterrey en route to her maiden title. Svitolina’s win in the series came in this year’s Stuttgart quarterfinals.

Andreeva already knew she’d be playing Saturday when she took the court against late replacement Diana Schnaider earlier Friday. She won 6-2, 6-1 to finish 3-0 without dropping a set and will face Jessica Pegula for the first time in the other semifinal.

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