Rybakina beats Pliskova in Guadalajara Open first spherical, retains WTA Finals hopes alive

Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina remained in rivalry for a WTA Finals spot with a 7-6(5), 6-2 win over Karolina Pliskova within the first spherical of the Guadalajara Open on Tuesday.

Pliskova served for the opening set at 5-3 however the Czech was unable to complete the job as Rybakina battled again to drive a tiebreak.

Pliskova issued certainly one of her six double faults within the match on set level within the tibreaker and Rybakina cruised from there, taking the second set behind her highly effective groundstrokes and booming serve.

Subsequent up for Rybakina is a gathering with American Jessica Pegula, who received their solely earlier assembly on the Miami Open this yr.

The WTA Finals shall be contested by the sport's prime eight gamers, with Iga Swiatek, Ons Jabeur and Pegula having locked up the primary three spots.

Rybakina can guide her spot by successful the title in Mexico. The Finals kick off on Oct. 31 in Fort Price, Texas.

Canadian Bianca Andreescu rallied to beat Petra Kvitova 3-6, 6-2, 6-0 and can meet both Rybakina or Pegula within the third spherical.

After a robust begin, Kvitova's serve started to betray her and she or he issued eight double faults and was damaged for an eighth time within the last recreation of the competition to finish her season.

Earlier within the day, former Wimbledon finalist Eugenie Bouchard beat American qualifier Kayla Day 7-5, 6-3 to arrange a second spherical conflict with twelfth seed Jelena Ostapenko.

The victory by the Canadian wildcard was her first at a WTA 1000 degree occasion since Dubai in 2019. The 28-year-old, whose profession has been suffering from harm, was pressured to retire halfway by way of her match on the Transylvania Open final week with a hip harm.

Individuals Madison Keys and Danielle Collins, who're additionally within the working for the WTA finals, each moved on to the second spherical on Tuesday, together with Russia's Anna Kalinskaya, Croatia's Donna Vekic, Italy's Martina Trevisan and Czech Marie Bouzkova.