WTA Finals: Barbora Krejcikova beats Coco Gauff to seal semi-final spot and eliminate Iga Swiatek

Czech player grinds out victory against American as final four takes shape in Riyadh

Czech Republic's Barbora Krejcikova celebrates after winning a point against Coco Gauff in Riyadh. AFP

Barbora Krejcikova defeated Coco Gauff in Riyadh on Thursday to secure her spot in the WTA Finals at the expense of second seed Iga Swiatek.

The Czech Wimbledon champion claimed a 7-5, 6-4 victory over Gauff to end the title defence of Swiatek, who needed Krejcikova to lose in order to make it to the final four.

With one win and one loss under her belt entering the last day of round-robin play, Swiatek’s 6-1, 6-0 victory over alternate Daria Kasatkina did not have any bearing on her qualification chances.

The only scenario that would have led to Swiatek’s advance to the semi-finals would have been a Gauff win over Krejcikova.

That result did not materialise though and the five-time major winner saw her tournament come to an abrupt end on Thursday evening, with Krejcikova punching her ticket to the semi-finals of the WTA Finals for the first time, on her second singles appearance.

Krejcikova moves forward as the winner of the Orange Group, and will face Zheng Qinwen in Friday’s last-four stage, with Gauff advancing as the runner-up to set up a semi-final showdown with world number one Aryna Sabalenka.

“Definitely, this is a big win for me. I’m really happy with how I played and with my performance today. It was a really big match,” said Krejcikova, who saved a remarkable 11 of 12 break points against Gauff.

“Playing tomorrow again is something unimaginable before this tournament and I’m really proud of myself and I’m looking forward to the new challenges.

“I was just fighting for every ball and I knew it’s going to be difficult because I know Coco is on a roll and she’s one of the best players this season. That was a huge challenge but also the big prize, the semis was on the table. I am super excited to be here.”

Gauff saved two match points in a 10-minute final game and had three opportunities to break Krejcikova but the eighth seed would not fold, and she scooped the victory with a service winner after one hour and 42 minutes of play.

Krejcikova, who has won just 21 matches this season, earned her place in the WTA Finals field due to a new rule introduced by the tour in 2024, which gives priority to a reigning Grand Slam champion over the eighth-ranked player in the Race.

As the Wimbledon champion, Krejcikova grabbed the last spot in Riyadh over world number eight Emma Navarro, who chose not to come to the kingdom as an alternate.

Kasatkina, who made $200,000 as an alternate called in to replace the injured Jessica Pegula in Thursday’s schedule, does not think the new rule should have been implemented, and believes the top eight in the year-to-end WTA Race should be the ones competing in the WTA Finals.

“In my opinion, the WTA Race is the WTA Race. So it's about the how many points you earn during the year. If you win a Grand Slam, you already got what you achieved. You won the Grand Slam, points, money, glory, everything,” explained Kasatkina, who noted that she would have still been the first alternate had the rule not been introduced.

“Here it's the WTA Race. So I think in this scenario, it has to go by points.”

Czech Republic's Barbora Krejcikova, left, shakes hands with Coco Gauff of the US after winning their women's singles group stage match. Reuters

Earlier in the day, Swiatek crushed Kasatkina in a mere 51 minutes and later admitted she had no idea her qualification chances solely depended on the result of the evening match.

“Honestly, I don't think it matters, like we go out on court to win every match anyway. So I wasn't thinking about that. I didn't know that this is the case,” said the Polish world number two.

“I'm professional enough to always give 100 per cent no matter what the stakes are.”

She added: “If I'm not going to play semis, then I'll have a couple of days off, and I can't take back time and play better in the match that I played against Coco. I won two matches in the group, so I guess I did everything I could to be there.”

Swiatek’s season is not over yet as she plans on leading Poland next week in the Billie Jean King Cup Finals, which kick off in Malaga on November 13.