Guadalajara, Jalisco, November 10, 2021.- The Akron Stadium held the inauguration of the AKRON WTA Finals Guadalajara 2021, prior to the stellar match to conclude the first day of the tournament. During the brief ceremony, there was a performance that honored the pre-Hispanic cultures of Mexico and showed the tennis world the folklore with the traditional music of La Perla Tapatia.
Karolina Pliskova won at thrilling match against the Spaniard Garbiñe Muguruz – part of the Teotihuacán group – on the first day of the AKRON WTA Finals. The stage was the Pan-American Tennis Complex in Zapopan, which had an incredible showing of 4,500 fans who enjoyed a great show.
In a match that lasted almost two and a half hours, the Czech (seeded number 3), defeated the Spaniard (seeded number 6) 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (6).
The Spanish/Venezuelan player had a good start to the match, she took advantage of the fact that Pliskova was slow to get into the rhythm and making many; she was able to break her powerful serve early on. However, towards the end of the set, the Czech showed improvement and began to find her shots. The second set was all for Pliskova who quickly took a 3-0 lead, her serve was back and so was her lethal forehand. With two breaks, she won the set, and the match was now even.
With the score 5-4 for Karolina, she had two chances to finish the match, was not able to convert the match points. Muguruza managed to survive, and the score was now 5-5; she had two opportunities to break Pliskova’s serve to take the lead but was not able to close the game either.
In the tie break, the Spaniard went up 3-1 with the massive support of the crowd who could not stop chanting her name “Garbiñe Muguruza.” However, in the end, Pliskova managed to fight to close out the spectacular match filled with drama and emotions. Both players had eight aces during the match, and although Pliskova had more double faults, 9 against 3, she had a better first serve percentage (72.1%).
“In the second set I did not serve as well as in the first and she began to do better, because it is her best weapon. The real battle was in the third set, where the difference was just one point, but I’m proud of my fighting spirit and my performance today. I would have had to be better at some key points of the game, because I even missed a point that went by three centimeters”, stated the Spaniard who said she has not lost hope because the round robin format is an advantage in these types of tournaments. She also acknowledged and thanked the support she received from the fans in this match against one of the most experienced and difficult competitors on the WTA circuit. The Czech now has an overwhelming dominance over Muguruza in their head-to-head of 11 matches – the Czech has now won nine matches against her and lost just two.
With this result, the first day of matches for the group has concluded. Anett Kontaveit and Karolina Pliskova both stand at 1-0 – and the Estonia is leading by the best percentage of sets won and lost (2-0 by 2-1). Muguruza is in third place with 0-1 (1-2 in sets) and currently in fourth place is Barbora Krejcikova with 0-1 (0-2 in sets).
Guadalajara, Jalisco, November 10, 2021.- The Akron Stadium held the inauguration of the AKRON WTA Finals Guadalajara 2021, prior to the stellar match to conclude the first day of the tournament. During the brief ceremony, there was a performance that honored the pre-Hispanic cultures of Mexico and showed the tennis world the folklore with the traditional music of La Perla Tapatia.
Karolina Pliskova won at thrilling match against the Spaniard Garbiñe Muguruz – part of the Teotihuacán group – on the first day of the AKRON WTA Finals. The stage was the Pan-American Tennis Complex in Zapopan, which had an incredible showing of 4,500 fans who enjoyed a great show.
In a match that lasted almost two and a half hours, the Czech (seeded number 3), defeated the Spaniard (seeded number 6) 6-4, 2-6, 7-6 (6).
The Spanish/Venezuelan player had a good start to the match, she took advantage of the fact that Pliskova was slow to get into the rhythm and making many; she was able to break her powerful serve early on. However, towards the end of the set, the Czech showed improvement and began to find her shots. The second set was all for Pliskova who quickly took a 3-0 lead, her serve was back and so was her lethal forehand. With two breaks, she won the set, and the match was now even.
With the score 5-4 for Karolina, she had two chances to finish the match, was not able to convert the match points. Muguruza managed to survive, and the score was now 5-5; she had two opportunities to break Pliskova’s serve to take the lead but was not able to close the game either.
In the tie break, the Spaniard went up 3-1 with the massive support of the crowd who could not stop chanting her name “Garbiñe Muguruza.” However, in the end, Pliskova managed to fight to close out the spectacular match filled with drama and emotions. Both players had eight aces during the match, and although Pliskova had more double faults, 9 against 3, she had a better first serve percentage (72.1%).
“In the second set I did not serve as well as in the first and she began to do better, because it is her best weapon. The real battle was in the third set, where the difference was just one point, but I’m proud of my fighting spirit and my performance today. I would have had to be better at some key points of the game, because I even missed a point that went by three centimeters”, stated the Spaniard who said she has not lost hope because the round robin format is an advantage in these types of tournaments. She also acknowledged and thanked the support she received from the fans in this match against one of the most experienced and difficult competitors on the WTA circuit. The Czech now has an overwhelming dominance over Muguruza in their head-to-head of 11 matches – the Czech has now won nine matches against her and lost just two.
With this result, the first day of matches for the group has concluded. Anett Kontaveit and Karolina Pliskova both stand at 1-0 – and the Estonia is leading by the best percentage of sets won and lost (2-0 by 2-1). Muguruza is in third place with 0-1 (1-2 in sets) and currently in fourth place is Barbora Krejcikova with 0-1 (0-2 in sets).