Qiang Wang made the most of her second chance to advance to the final of the WTA Elite Trophy where she will face Australia’s Ashleigh Barty.
Wang has had the best season of her career on route to the Elite Trophy, winning her first two WTA titles of her career and winning gold at the Asian Games. However, she had been eliminated from this tournament during the group phase after finishing second in a pool containing Madison Keys and Daria Kasatkina.
However, with group winner Keys forced to withdraw shortly before the semifinals with a left knee injury, Wang received her second bite at the cherry.
She certainly made the most of it, comprehensively getting the better of two-time Grand Slam champion Garbine Muguruza.
At 3-2 in the first set, a tense 11-minute game saw Wang break despite Muguruza having three chances to close out the set. The Spaniard failed to claim a single game beyond that point as Wang cruised to a 6-2, 6-0 victory to make the final.
Barty, meanwhile, came from a set down to end Julia Goerges‘ title defence. The tournament’s ninth seed dropped the opening set, but went on to take a 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 victory.
That finals feeling!! One more to go 🤗🎾🇨🇳👌🏽 @WTAEliteTrophy pic.twitter.com/lV7plLYW8t
— Ash Barty (@ashbar96) November 3, 2018
Wang and Barty have only faced each other once to date on the WTA Tour, with the Australian coming out on top earlier this year in a straight sets triumph in Strasbourg.