• WTA Finals

Serena bounces back as Sharapova hopes hit

Serena Williams has given herself a shot at qualfying for the semi-finals © Getty Images

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Serena Williams rebounded from the worst beating of her professional career to rout Eugenie Bouchard 6-1 6-1 at the WTA Finals on Thursday.

Williams was humbled by Simona Halep the previous day, when the 18-time grand slam champion won only two games.

Eugenie Bouchard became the first player eliminated from the WTA Finals in Singapore © Getty Images

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She turned around and eliminated Bouchard from semi-final contention with a 0-3 record in the round-robin stage, while Williams improved to 2-1. Williams will have to wait until Friday's match between Halep and Ana Ivanovic to know if she is through to the last four.

Williams will qualify for the knockout stages unless Ivanovic manages to beat Halep in straight sets. Halep is already guaranteed a semi-final berth.

She credited her coach Patrick Mouratoglou with lifting her out of the doldrums and preparing her for Thursday's match.

"I started to believe that maybe I could come play another match," Williams said. "I wasn't quite sure that I could.

"I was feeling mighty low. I was able to feed off this belief. I know that sounds weird, even though I've won so many titles, I still at some point feel like, 'Oh gosh, maybe I might not be able to do this or maybe I might not be able to do that?'"

Williams was fatalistic about whether she will make the semi-finals and remain in the running for a third straight title at the season-ending championships.

"If I wanted to win and be a part of the event, I should have won my match yesterday or should have done better," Williams said. "If I don't qualify, I'll be sad, but it wasn't my year. I'm not going to fall out and die."

Bouchard, the Wimbledon finalist, came into the tournament with only two tour matches in a month due to injuries, and won only 11 games across her three matches.

"I didn't have ideal preparation but that can happen to a number of players at any given tournament," Bouchard said. "It's disappointing that it's at such a big and cool event where I would love to play as well as I can."

Maria Sharapova seemed lost for words after being blown away by Petra Kvitova © Getty Images

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Meanwhile, the outcome of the other group remains uncertain, with none of the four players qualified for the semis, and none eliminated from contention.

Maria Sharapova's hopes of ending the year as world No.1 took a huge blow after she was resoundingly beaten by Petra Kvitova at the season-ending championship in Singapore.

Sharapova, who needs to win the title to have a chance of overtaking Williams at the top of the rankings, fell to a 0-2 record after Wimbledon champion Kvitova eased to a 6-3 6-2 win. Kvitova is now 1-1 in the White Group round-robin stage.

Sharapova beat the Czech left-hander in their past five meetings and started brightly by winning the opening two games. But Kvitova took over from there, winning 11 of the next 12 games.

Kvitova said she was feeling burnt out during her first-round loss to Agnieszka Radwanska, so took an unusual approach to freshen up for Thursday's match.

"When I lost against Aga, I was so tired and sick of the tennis for a moment," Kvitova said. "So I didn't practice today at all, and I just really relaxed and cleaned my mind a little bit."

Sharapova had no answers as Kvitova reeled off deep winners to take charge.

"I didn't feel as sharp as I did in the previous matches against her," Sharapova said. "I just don't feel that I reacted as well in her bigger shots. She's someone that likes to play aggressive and hit the ball, and very deep as well. She countered my shots extremely well and I was just never ready for the next ball."

Caroline Wozniacki is now 2-0 after beating Radwanska 7-5 6-3 in a tense battle that lasted almost two hours. Radwanska, who beat Kvitova on Tuesday, is also 1-1.

In order for Sharapova to progress to the semi-finals, she will need to win her last match against Radwanska and rely on Wozniacki beating Kvitova while also having set and game percentage turn in her favour.

Radwanska ended up the loser but played a couple of extraordinary volley winners: One picked up at her shoelaces and lifted diagonally over the net, and another leaping effort played with her back to the net.

"It was a couple of amazing rallies and a couple of amazing shots as well," Radwanska said. "I just needed some more good serves as well in that match."

Wozniacki was able to smile after Radwanska's trick shots.

"I'm like, 'Okay, you know what, that's just too good'," Wozniacki said. "You can either get frustrated or laugh - it's better to laugh."

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