(Reuters) - Coco Gauff and Caroline Garcia qualified for the eight-player WTA Finals after Aryna Sabalenka lost to Liudmila Samsonova in the Guadalajara Open second round on Wednesday.
Russian Samsonova, who has won 20 of her last 22 matches, smacked 21 winners and broke the powerful Belarussian four times en route to a 6-4 2-6 6-2 upset win over the world number four.The WTA Finals featuring the world's top eight players start on Oct.
31.Iga Swiatek, Ons Jabeur and Jessica Pegula had already locked up the first three spots before Guadalajara so with the addition of American Gauff and France's Garcia, three openings remain.
Despite the loss, Sabalenka has not been eliminated from making the elite eight, according to the WTA.She currently holds a qualifying spot and will now wait to see if her points total holds up against the field.Fifth seed Gauff was not at her best but was still good enough to see off Italy's Elisabetta Cocciaretto 7-6(1) 6-3.