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Reuters: Paula Badosa overcame a slow start to take down Belarusian top seed Aryna Sabalenka after Maria Sakkari continued her dominance of Iga Swiatek in the round-robin stage of the WTA Finals in Guadalajara, Mexico
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| Paula Badosa |
on Thursday.
Badosa stunned world number two Sabalenka 6-4 6-0 after winning the last 10 games, while Sakkari secured a comfortable 6-2 6-4 win over Poland’s Swiatek.
Badosa was 2-4 down in the first set but the Spaniard withstood Sabalenka’s early power to take the opening set.
The 23-year-old, who lifted the Indian Wells title last month, closed out the match with a bagel in the second set as she celebrated a win under the lights on her WTA Finals debut.
The powerful Sakkari is enjoying a breakthrough year, having reached the semi-finals of the French Open and U.S. Open to secure a career-high world ranking of number six.
The WTA Finals divides the players into two groups of four to play in a round-robin format, with each player competing in three matches.
The top two from each group will advance to the semi-finals.
The WTA Finals were not held last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic and were originally scheduled to take place in Shenzhen before being moved because of pandemic-related travel restrictions in China.
