Australia’s Ashleigh Barty faces a waiting game to see if she advances to the semi-finals of the WTA Elite Tour after beating Caroline Garcia in China.
Ashleigh Barty bounced back from a straights sets defeat to Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, but victory over Caroline Garcia may not be enough to snatch a semi-final berth at the WTA Elite Trophy in China.
The Australian wrapped up her round robin play in Orchid Group on Thursday with a efficient 6-3 6-4 victory based on a flawless serve and the conversion of two break points.
However, world No.12 Sabalenka still holds the advantage in the three-player group as she will be favoured to beat Garcia in the final match-up in Zhuhai on Friday.
In contrast to she slow start against Sabalenka, Barty exerted control early breaking Garcia’s second service game before closing out the opening set.
The 22-year-old Queenslander, who is playing her first tournament in a month since suffering a shoulder injury, also broke Garcia early in the second to avenge a loss to the current world No.18 in their only previous meeting.
Garcia and 19th-ranked Barty first met in China last year where the Frenchwoman won the final in Wuhan 6-7 (7-3) 7-6 (7-4) 6-2.
Barty had no expectations of making the semi-finals after wrapping up her match in 75 minutes.
“I’m certainly very happy to finish off my season with a win,” she said.
“It’s nice to come away with a win and now I get to sit here tomorrow and enjoy the next match.”
The Elite Trophy features the world’s top 12 singles players who did not qualify for last week’s WTA Finals.