WTA Finals 2019 Day 8 Preview – Championship Sunday

A year ago, Ash Barty had just debuted in the top 15 for the first time with a win at the WTA Elite Trophy event, a tournament for the highest-ranked players who did not qualify for the WTA Finals.  This was only her third career singles title, and she had yet to advance beyond the fourth round at a Major. But that quickly changed, as she started 2019 by reaching the quarterfinals in Australia.  A few months later, she won the biggest title of her career at the Premier Mandatory event in Miami. She had come into 2019 with almost as many losses as wins in her career on clay, yet shocked the tennis world by winning her first Major at Roland Garros.  Ahead of today’s final, she’s the co-leader (with Kiki Bertens) in WTA match wins with 55, and will end the year as world No.1 with over 1,500 more points than her competition.

A year ago, Elina Svitolina won the biggest title of her career at this event.  It was her 13th career title, but her career had followed a pattern of great success outside the Majors while being unable to advance further than the quarterfinals at the Slams.  This season, she’s surprisingly gone title-less to this point, though she finally reached two Major semifinals. She’s now won her last 10 matches at this event dating back to 2017.  She’s into her first final of the season, and owns a 13-2 record in finals throughout her career, having won the last nine. And notably, she’s 3-0 in finals when trying to defend a title she won the previous year.

Ash Barty (1) vs. Elina Svitolina (8)

It’s rare to see a player own a 5-0 record against the world No.1, but that’s the case here.  Svitolina has never lost to Barty, and has won 10 of their 12 sets played. Four of their five previous matches were played on hard courts.  Their most recent match was at Indian Wells earlier this year, where Svitolina prevailed 6-4 in the third, in a dramatic match that lasted over three hours.  Another extended battle here would not be surprising, and Barty is an even more confident player today than she was eight months ago when they last met. However, Svitolina’s 5-0 record against Barty, her 13-2 record in finals, and her 3-0 record when defending titles all speak for themselves.  And while Ash has played well this week, Elina has been better, and only dropped one set to this point. Svitolina is a clear favorite to be the first champion to repeat at this event since Serena Williams five years ago.

Also on Sunday, the doubles championship match will be a rematch of the Wimbledon final with Wimbledon champions Su-Wei Hsieh and Barbora Strycova (2) vs. Timea Babos and Kiki Mladenovic (3), who are the defending champions at this event.  Regardless of the result, Strycova will end the year as the doubles No.1.