Caroline Garcia tops Daria Kasatkina for final spot in semis of WTA Finals

FORT WORTH, Texas: Caroline Garcia claimed the last spot in the semifinals of the season-ending WTA Finals with a 4-6, 6-1, 7-6(5) round-robin victory over Daria Kasatkina on Saturday.

The sixth-ranked Frenchwoman became the first in 30 matches this season to beat Kasatkina after losing the first set to the No. 8 player.

A tense third set that included a nine-deuce game in which Kasatkina finally held serve for a 5-4 lead ended in the tiebreaker when a scrambling Kasatkina put a volley into the net.

Garcia and Kasatkina played the winner-take-all match after both lost to top-ranked Iga Swiatek and beat 18-year-old American Coco Gauff in group play.

Swiatek had already clinched the top spot in the group. She and Gauff were set to wrap up singles play Saturday night.

Fifth-ranked Maria Sakkari and No. 7 Aryna Sabalenka are the other singles qualifiers from the eight-player field on the indoor hard court at Dickies Arena. The event was moved to Texas from China.

Garcia has reached the semifinals in both WTA Finals appearances. The first was in 2017.