Karolina Pliskova 6-2, 6-7 (4-7), 7-5 Garbine Muguruza
This match saw a magnificent comeback from Karolina Pliskova, who came from 5-2 down in the final set and saved a match point in the path to the victory. With the benefit of hindsight, had Muguruza won this match, Muguruza would have a chance to progress to the semifinals.
Pliskova made the first breakthrough early on in the set at 1-1, breaking Muguruza’s serve game as Muguruza’s unforced errors proved costly. Pliskova then managed to consolidate the break to have a comfortable 3-1 lead in the scoreboard. Muguruza’s unforced errors costed her once again as she was once again broken by Pliskova to trail by a double break and look distant from a 1st set victory. Serving to stay in the first set, Muguruza finally managed to hold her serve and keep her in the set for at least another game, and stop Pliskova’s run of 5 straight games. Pliskova finally closed out the set 6-2 on her 3rd set point with a strong serve after just 34 minutes.
Pliskova managed to make the first breakthrough again, by breaking Muguruza’s serve with some precise hitting to start the 2nd set with a boom. Pliskova looked on-course for an easy victory to start her 1st ever Singapore campaign when she managed to hold her serve and lead 6-1, 2-0 after saving a break point in the process. Muguruza earned her 1st comfortable hold of service in this match when she held her serve to love to get her on the scoreboard in the 2nd set. She finally got her 1st break of the match at 3-2 to keep the 2nd set wide open after Pliskova failed to find her first services. Muguruza then went on a run as she held her serve, and broke Pliskova’s serve for the second consecutive time to take the lead in the match for the first time. There was another break as Muguruza was broken when serving for the set at 5-3, and stopped her streak of 4 consecutive games. There were no more breaks of serve in the set, and therefore the set proceeded into a tiebreak. Pliskova started the tiebreak brightly, jumping out to a 3-0 lead and look even closer to a straight sets victory, but Muguruza went on a run of her own as she won 4 straight points to take the lead. From 4-4, Muguruza won 3 straight points to clinch the 2nd set 7-6 and escape from a defeat despite being a whisker away from it.
Muguruza went on fire at the start of the final set, powering to a magnificent 4-0 lead within a blink of an eye. Pliskova finally stopped the rout with a comfortable hold of serve. Muguruza then had a chance to serve for a 5-1 lead, but Pliskova managed to save 4 game points to prevail in a marathon 15-minutes game to break and lessen the deficit to just 2 games. Muguruza then shrugged off the disappointment when she broke Pliskova’s serve to love immediately in the next game to have a double break lead and have an opportunity to serve for the match twice. Muguruza had a match point on her service, but lost it after an unforced error at the net. Muguruza would rue this missed opportunity as Pliskova would go on and win 12 of the next 14 points to break Muguruza twice and level the match at 5-5 to keep the match wide open again. Muguruza’s impressive run continued as she held her serve to lead 6-5 and be just a game away from winning the match after making an improbable comeback. Muguruza once again failed to impress as she was broken for the 3rd straight time to lose the match despite having a 5-2 lead in the final set.
Muguruza
|
Pliskova
| |
Aces
|
2
|
14
|
DFs
|
9
|
3
|
1st Serve
|
56%
|
62%
|
1st Serve Won
|
61%
|
66%
|
2nd Serve Won
|
39%
|
40%
|
Break Points
|
5/9
|
8/15
|
Net Points
|
15/21
|
15/23
|
Winners
|
34
|
36
|
Unforced Errors
|
37
|
43
|
Points Won
|
116
|
106
|