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Beatriz Haddad Maia and Qinwen Zheng will vie for the WTA Elite Trophy on Sunday. Both players took different routes to make it to the finale on Saturday. In the first semi-final, Haddad Maia continued with her superb showing in the Chinese event this week, this time against Daria Kasatkina.
Entering into the match, neither player had lost a match in the round-robin matches played in the group stages. However, with only one player being able to maintain this streak, it was the Brazilian’s turn to do so. She needed 93 minutes to complete a 6-4, 6-1 win over her opponent.
Throughout the match, Haddad Maia didn’t face any break point and converted three break points on Kasatkina’s serve. She also lost only nine of 36 points played on her first serve. She finished the match with 62 points, 19 more than Kasatkina’s.
Haddad Maia’s now playing both the singles and doubles finales this week. With her teammate Veronika Kudermetova, the southpaw will contest the doubles final against Miyu Kato and Aldila Sutjiadi.
WTA Elite Trophy: Qinwen Zheng asserts her ground
Meanwhile, Zheng took almost three hours and 20 minutes to get the better of her compatriot, Lin Zhu in their semi-final meeting.
Zheng eventually prevailed 7-5, 4-6, 6-1. In the first set, Zhu served for the set in the 10th game but was broken back. From that game onwards, Zheng won three consecutive games to clinch the set. The second set did go Zhu’s way but in the decider, Zheng rebounded with quite some intensity to make her way ahead.
The WTA Elite Trophy’s last match will be the maiden match-up between Beatriz Haddad Maia and Qinwen Zheng on the circuit.