WTA World Tour Finals: Karolina Pliskova brushed aside as Anett Kontaveit dishes out a straight-sets drubbing

ByOli Gent

Updated 13/11/2021 at 00:08 GMT

The Estonian made it two wins from two in the Teotihuacan group, following up her impressive 6-3 6-4 victory against second seed Barbora Krejcikova on Wednesday with a dominant display in Guadalajara. Kontaveit won inside an hour and plays Garbine Muguruza next at the prestigious season-ending event.

Anett Kontaveit all but sealed her place in the semi-finals of the WTA World Tour Finals as she destroyed third seed Karolina Pliskova 6-4 6-0.

The Estonian made it two wins from two in the Teotihuacan group, following up her impressive display against second seed Barbora Krejcikova with a dominant display in Guadalajara.

Finishing the job inside an hour, Kontaveit was in no mood to mess around, and she started brightly; hitting well through the ball.

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Pliskova showed her experience and her talents too, but her opponent across the net was just that level above - she was clinical with the chances she had, putting away her only break point of the first set to steal the initiative away from the Czech.

GUADALAJARA, MEXICO - NOVEMBER 12: Karolina Pliskova of Czech Republic shows dejection in her singles match against Anett Kontaveit of Estonia during Day 3 of 2021 Akron WTA Finals Guadalajara at Centro Panamericano de Tenis on November 12, 2021 in Guadal

Image credit: Getty Images

Her second serve was equally as good: she held firm when under pressure, winning 59% of points behind the second service, with Pliskova tailing off with a disappointing 37% success rate.

In the second set, Kontaveit turned up the heat: she was ruthless on the breaks of serve, taking all but one of the break points she earned, whilst remaining strong in defence, holding off two of Pliskova's when it seemed as though the Czech was about to regain her foothold in the game.

But Kontaveit will march on relentlessly: with a tough match against Garbine Muguruza to come, she'll have to adopt some form of caution. But based on today's result and her performance in the first match, the eighth seed could well stake her claim for the crown.

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