SINGAPORE: Second seed Garbine Muguruza had a successful debut at the WTA Finals, recording a 6-3, 7-6 (4) win against Lucie Safarova on Monday.
Muguruza, who is the first Spaniard to play in the WTA Finals since Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario in 2001, didn’t face a break point in the first set and captured it by breaking Safarova’s serve in the final game.
The eighth-seeded Safarova held a 3-1 lead in the second set after breaking Muguruza’s serve in the first game.
Muguruza recouped the service break in the sixth game to eventually force the tiebreaker.
At 5-4 for Muguruza in the tiebreaker, Safarova made two unforced errors on her serve to end the match in the Spaniard’s favor.
Fourth seed Petra Kvitova and sixth seed Angelique Kerber were playing the second singles match Monday.