"I kept battling", Sloane Stephens emphasized when interviewed by the commentator on-court following the second round with Kiki Bertens. But the opening round with Naomi Osaka started off as a duel of rallies, but somehow Osaka's nerves or over aggression couldn't find the right balance and she lost in three sets to Stephens. Kiki Bertens', her second round opponent had pushed Stephens to over two hours and three sets again. Both gave award-winning performances with stinging down the lines, precision cross courts and unexpected drop shots. Singapore's weather might have been very calm and comfortable, but inside on Center Court, Stephens and Bertens were covered with beads of perspiration often needing to wipe off from their gritty court play. Stephens is definitely coming into each round with an advantage for she and Elina Svitolina are the only players of the eight who has won consecutive rounds. "It's tough when you're playing back-to-back Stephens had said. She has a strong tennis resume but this year has capture one title, the Miami Open playing opposite Jelena Ostapenko and winning in straight sets. Stephens is playing with a definite prominence and aggression which torments her opponents. Bertens has won two titles this season: The Western and Southern in Cincinnati and the Korean Open. But once players are on court, the magic they've shown in previous tournaments may not carry over to other events. This round robin play can be a benefit or grueling as losing doesn't mean you pack your rackets and go until next year. Players have to continue with the possibility of getting to the semifinal being great. The first set between Stephens and Bertens was a feisty mixture on both players' part. It was suspenseful, ingenious, and brilliant. Bertens brought the opening set toa tiebreak as Stephens was leading 3-0. But the Dutch woman had other ideas and had the stamina and strategy to come from behind to the tiebreak. It was unfortunate but the nervous unforced errors creeped in allowing Stephens to win the opening set 7-6. The second set Bertens must have promised herself not to make the same mistakes in the opening set and she whipped past Stephens at 5-1, letting her get one more game and then pushed the win to 6-2, making her forget she was the 2017 U.S. Open winner. Bertens made her break points count and holding back on those unforced errors was the difference in her style of play from the first set. Bertens might have wanted the same result as in the second set, but was unable to keep up the consistency on hitting winners. Stephens took her game up a notch and pounced on every weakened or vulnerable rally that the Dutch woman had. Bertens fought hard to get that second round robin win on the scoreboard but the match was clearly on Stephens' racket another three setter at 7-6, 2-6, 6-3. She had given herself a good towel wipe off and the crowd waved toher for a job well done and will anxiously await the next round.<doc-sep>There's been an extra bit of energy in Sloane Stephens' first step to the ball and a lighter touch in her drop shots and lobs at these WTA Finals. The incentives are obvious. While Stephens won the Miami Open in March and is solidly entrenched in the top 10, at No. 6, she also absorbed a few stinging blows in 2018. In the French Open final in June, Stephens was up a set but ultimately lost to Simona Halep. A few months later in the US Open final, Stephens, the defending champion, fell in the quarterfinals against No. 18 Anastasija Sevastova. But you can discount revenge and external pressure as motivators for Stephens this week in Singapore. It just isn't how her mind operates. Stephens has, somewhat unexpectedly, become more dangerous thanks to improved career management along with improved fitness and, yes, motivation. Stephens looks like she has found the post-Grand Slam season wind that eludes so many. Her late-season performances have historically been lackluster. This is her first appearance in the season-ending final, and she arrived in Singapore with the weakest record in the field (33 wins, just 2-4 after the US Open). Her coach, Kamau Murray, isn't even at the championships because of a long-standing commitment to host the Clintons (yes, those Clintons) at his Chicago tennis academy. Undeterred, Stephens has won two high-quality matches thus far. She knocked off Naomi Osaka in three sets in her opener Monday and then fought off Kiki Bertens, who entered this event riding a nine-match winning streak against top-10 players, in a 2-hour, 20-minute match Wednesday. Their clash was a feast for fans of all-court tennis. Both women used every tactical ploy and shot in their armory. Stephens will qualify for the semifinals if she beats Angelique Kerber on Friday, although other scenarios also could see her through. "I'm so happy, so relieved," Stephens told the crowd in Singapore following her latest win. "It was a great match." Paul Annacone, a Tennis Channel analyst and former coach of Stephens' and others, including Roger Federer, told ESPN.com. "It used to be that when she lost a few matches she would get derailed for a while. Now she may go through some losing streaks, but it doesn't really crush her confidence. She can bounce back pretty quickly." Stephens likely will never be like most other players. She enjoyed early notoriety at age 19, when she reached the Australian Open semis. But she had trouble adjusting to the challenges that followed. Over time, she learned to cope with the pressure she put on herself -- as well as expectations of others -- a little differently than some of her peers. Mainly, she found ways to stare them down, an attitude that has baffled some critics. Stephens has refused to wring her hands over losses or alter her way of doing things in the wake of hitting a bad patch, even one as alarming as the eight-match losing streak that followed her breakthrough last year at the US Open. If that struck some as a "teachable moment," it could only be described as such in a curious way. Stephens' reaction to the losing streak had been to double down, shrugging the losses off as the result of fatigue and distractions. Following her first-round Wimbledon loss at the hands of Donna Vekic in July, Stephens tweeted: "Trials make you stronger. As an athlete you have to recognize when to push ahead and not to dwell. I won't be dwelling." Sloane Stephens went 3-0 in the round-robin stage of this year's WTA Finals. Clive Brunskill/Getty Images In her coach, Murray, Stephens found a kindred spirit. They don't "dwell" or waste words or overcomplicate things. As Murray recently told the WTA, "Sloane is very easy because she's very honest. I want to eat this. Stop doing that. Can you get me this? I don't like this. I think this. He's serving this way. Tell me to serve this way. I think it makes it pretty easy." Annacone said he likes the way the pair work, especially on the rebound. They seem to put the past to bed and move on easily. "They circle back, fresh," he said. "It's just part and parcel of who she is, and maybe that's what we're seeing in Singapore." Two long matches must have had some level of a physical toll on Stephens. A round-robin followed by a single-elimination stage, all featuring only elite players, is a grueling challenge for a first-timer at the WTA Finals. But Stephens is playing like someone with a point to prove. "I don't think she's accepting mediocrity," Annacone said. "But she's realizing, 'I'm a great player -- I'm going to bounce back from losses and have some great wins, too. I'm not going to let any loss or group of losses cloud my mind.' That's what used to happen to her some years ago." Stephens has made a habit of punching through at some unexpected times and places. Singapore just might be next in line.<doc-sep>American will take on Pliskova in WTA semi-finals after defeating Kerber 6-3, 6-3 while Bertens also advances following Osaka’s injury retirement<doc-sep>Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina celebrates after winning her semi final match againast Netherlands’ Kiki Bertens. (REUTERS) Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina celebrates after winning her semi final match againast Netherlands’ Kiki Bertens. (REUTERS) Sloane Stephens and Elina Svitolina enjoyed contrasting three-set victories on Saturday to set up a fascinating WTA Finals title showdown between the only undefeated women at the eight-player season-ending tournament. Stephens remarkably lost the first eight games of her semi-final against a relentless Karolina Pliskova before the athletic American turned the contest on its head in the second set to emerge with a 0-6 6-4 6-1 triumph over the Czech. “I came out a little nervous and wasn’t quite feeling the ball and she was absolutely working me in the beginning,” Stephens said in a post-match interview. “I just tried to stay in it, get as many balls back as I could and am really proud of my fight today.” In the early match, Ukraine’s Svitolina put on a defensive masterclass to stifle the power of Kiki Bertens with a 7-5 6-7(5) 6-4 victory over the Dutchwoman in a gripping encounter that could have gone either way. Few could have predicted what was to come when Pliskova started her match full of controlled aggression against an erratic Stephens as the Czech rattled through the opening set in 31 minutes. Pliskova was equally relentless at the start of the second set, breaking again to register an eighth game in a row before Stephens finally got on the scoreboard, roaring as if she had won the match when she broke back. Buoyed by the avoidance of total humiliation, Stephens appeared reborn and reeled off five of the next seven games to tie up the match as Pliskova struggled to maintain the pace. The final set started as a baseline slugfest with both players struggling to hold, until Stephens showed the kind of scintillating form that carried her to the 2017 U.S. Open title to ease away for a memorable come-from-behind victory. SILENCING HATERS Svitolina arrived in Singapore out of form yet determined to “silence the haters”, who she said believed she did not deserve to be in the tournament, and the Ukrainian has played brilliantly to win all three pool matches and her semi-final. “In the end, it was just about running and chasing every ball… the level was very tough, we were both playing such good tennis, I was just happy to close it out,” Svitolina said. A pumped-up Svitolina made the better start, chasing down every ball to earn an early break but the aggressive Bertens broke back as she began to find her range with a blistering forehand loaded with heavy topspin. Svitolina had been a virtual spectator during the fightback but shook off her passive play and concentrated on depth as opposed to direction, taking advantage of mental lapses from Bertens to claim the opener when her opponent double-faulted. A pep talk from coach Raemon Sluiter seemed to help Bertens iron out her unforced errors but the world number nine collapsed completely with the second set at her mercy, failing to convert four opportunities to level the match. Svitolina just kept the ball in play and rallied from 3-5 down to send the contest into a tiebreaker, which the Dutchwoman edged after rediscovering her poise. The Ukrainian emerged on top of three consecutive breaks at the start of a tense third set to stake an early lead in the decider and somehow rode the advantage all the way to the finish line, sealing the win with an epic hold in the 10th game. Stephens leads Svitolina 2-1 in their head-to-head stats, the American enjoying a straight-sets win over the Ukrainian in the last meeting at the Rogers Cup in August.<doc-sep>
Late last week, we ranked the eight women in the WTA Finals heading into the event. We had Naomi Osaka as the contender most likely to win and Elina Svitolina at the very bottom. Well ... Osaka left Singapore without a single W, and Svitolina is a semifinalist. Please pass the salt and ketchup -- the crow is being served. Svitolina might be one of our readers, because shortly after she demolished Petra Kvitova in her opening match, she dedicated the win to those detractors. "I want to take this win as one to go forward, and for all those people and haters that were saying I don't deserve to be here and I'm, you know, not good." Touché. Given how badly our predictions went the first time around, we've given ourselves a chance for redemption. Without further ado, our final four predictions for those still left in the Singapore field. Sloane Stephens went 3-0 in the round-robin stage of this year's WTA Finals. Clive Brunskill/Getty Images Power Ranking heading into WTA Finals: 5 Round-robin record: 2-0 (def. Osaka, Kiki Bertens, Angelique Kerber) Semifinal opponent: Karolina Pliskova It didn't seem quite fair. After posting a pair of impressive three-set wins over US Open champion Osaka and upset specialist Bertens, Stephens' fate was still undecided when she faced Kerber on Friday in the final round-robin match. But Stephens took care of Kerber swiftly, 6-3, 6-3. The performance was enough to make the American the favorite to win the WTA Finals. The keys for Stephens this week has been her patience, resilience and the relatively slow court speed, something she acknowledged after her win over Kerber. "This court is a bit of a neutralizer," Stephens told the crowd. "I think that's helped me a little bit." The surface has allowed her to make full use of her excellent movement and grind-it-out game and should certainly help returning Pliskova's dominant serve and all-around powerful game. 2. Elina Svitolina Power Ranking heading into WTA Finals: 8 Round-robin record: 3-0 (def. Wozniacki, Pliskova, Kvitova) Semifinal opponent: Bertens Last year, defending champion Caroline Wozniacki humiliated Svitolina in the round-robin stage, allowing her just two games. That was then. On Thursday, Svitolina clinched her semifinal berth with a win against Wozniacki. Like Stephens, Svitolina made it to the semis undefeated. Svitolina always has had trouble navigating Grand Slam draws and logging wins against elite players. But players often overcome seemingly mental challenges with technical or tactical changes. "I think she's still playing similar [to last year], but maybe she was missing much more before," Pliskova said in press after their match earlier in the week. "Maybe she improved a little bit the serve. Otherwise she's just defending." "Just" defending? That dogged defense could pay off in the form of a title for Svitolina, especially against the harder-hitting Bertens, who doesn't have the same level of patience as her opponent. 3. Kiki Bertens Power Ranking heading into WTA Finals: 3 Round-robin record: 2-1 (def. Kerber, Osaka; loss, Stephens) Semifinal opponent: Svitolina The mobile, 6-foot Bertens is a real opportunist, and that's a great quality in a tennis player. She made the elite-eight field only because of No. 1-ranked Simona Halep's withdrawal with an injury but has proved she belongs. Bertens started the year ranked No. 31, climbing her way up to No. 9 the hard way -- with quality wins against elite players, including a string of 10 consecutive victories versus top-10 players. That ended Wednesday versus Stephens. That match was a compelling struggle, featuring the kind of high-risk tennis that makes Bertens so dangerous. She smacked 24 winners while committing 47 unforced errors (Stephens had 18 and 37, respectively). But the match, like so many featuring players like Bertens, hinged on a few key points. Bertens' brand of no-holds-barred tennis can be unnerving for anyone, especially on big occasions. It's just matter of whether she can rattle an opponent who has not dropped a match this week. No. 4 Karolina Pliskova Power Ranking heading into WTA Finals: 4 Round-robin record: 2-1 (def. Kvitova, Wozniacki; loss, Svitolina) Semifinal opponent: Stephens Pliskova started great this week with a retribution win against the woman who ousted her in the semifinals last year, Wozniacki. Pliskova's massive serve enabled her to save all 10 break points she faced. But you rarely win major tournaments against top players with offense alone.