Pliskova and Svitolina clinch last WTA Finals spots
Karolina Pliskova and Elina Svitolina secured spot in the eight-woman field in Singapore next week.
MOSCOW (AFP) - Former world number one Karolina Pliskova earned a place in the year-ending WTA Finals despite a second-round defeat by Russian veteran Vera Zvonareva at Moscow s Kremlin Cup on Wednesday.
Pliskova s 6-1, 6-2 loss to Zvonareva, the 2010 Wimbledon and US Open runner-up, also secured Elina Svitolina s spot in the eight-woman field in Singapore next week.
Czech star Pliskova s participation was confirmed after fourth seed Kiki Bertens lost 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 to Aliaksandra Sasnovich of Belarus.
"I m delighted to be appearing at the WTA Finals for the third time," Pliskova said.
"I have such great memories from playing in Singapore in 2016 and 2017, and I can t wait to close out the year competing against the other elite players of 2018."
Pliskova and Svitolina joined top-ranked Simona Halep of Romania, Germany s Angelique Kerber, Japan s Naomi Osaka, Czech Petra Kvitova, Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark and Sloane Stephens of the USA.
They will battle for a $7 million (6.1 million euros) prize purse in Singapore.
Bertens, who sits ninth in the race to Singapore rankings, could still feature at the season-ending event as Halep, who pulled out of the Kremlin Cup on Tuesday, is battling a back injury.
She was diagnosed with a herniated disk following her withdrawal from Beijing two weeks ago.
The 34-year-old Zvonareva, who was unranked last year after taking a two-year hiatus to have her first child, claimed her first victory over a top-10 player since beating Caroline Wozniacki at the WTA Tour Finals in 2011.
"I knew that matches against top-10 players never come easy and tried hard to capitalise on every single opportunity that I had today and it paid off," the current world number 161 said after downing Pliskova.
Third-seeded American Sloane Stephens, the French Open finalist and former US Open champion who qualified for the WTA Finals earlier this week, also slumped to a 6-3, 6-2 loss to Tunisian qualifier Ons Jabeur.
In the quarter-finals, Jabeur will face eighth seed Anett Kontaveit, who saw off Frenchwoman Kristina Mladenovic 6-2, 7-6 (7/3).
In the men s draw, left-handed Frenchman Adrian Mannarino cruised into the last eight past top-seeded Italian Marco Cecchinato, beating this year s French Open semi-finalist 6-2, 6-3 in just 50 minutes.
The 30-year-old Mannarino will next meet Belarusian qualifier Egor Gerasimov, who beat Benoit Paire 6-4, 6-4.
