Halep and Sharapova drawn together at WTA Finals

Published 10/23/2015, 9:57 AM EDT

Follow Us

via Reuters

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Top seed Simona Halep was pooled with grand slam winners Maria Sharapova and Flavia Pennetta in a formidable looking Red Group for the end-of-season WTA Finals on Friday.

With world number one and defending champion Serena Williams opting out after narrowly missing out on a rare calendar Grand Slam, Romanian Halep is the highest seed for the eight woman end-of-season championships which begin on Sunday.

Halep, who lost to Williams in the final last year after beating the American in the pool stage, was drawn against Italian Pennetta, who lifted a shock U.S. Open title after compatriot Roberta Vinci beat Williams in the last four.

ADVERTISEMENT

Article continues below this ad

The Romanian, winner at Indian Wells earlier this year, will also take on Russian multiple grand slam winner Sharapova, who lost in the Australian Open final to Williams in January.

Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska, who won her 16th career title in China last week, rounded out the group from which the top two will advance to the semi-finals after round robin play.

Awaiting them will be the heavy hitters of the White Group, where Wimbledon finalist Garbine Muguruza of Spain and twice champion of the grass court major Petra Kvitova were pooled together.

They were joined by Germany’s Angelique Kerber, who completed the rare feat of winning WTA titles on green clay, red clay, grass and hardcourts this year.

Czech Lucie Safarova, who only qualified for the singles field on Thursday, was the other player in the group.

via Reuters

Safarova, the world number nine and French Open runner-up, will also play in the doubles with American partner Bethanie Mattek-Sands where she has been drawn in the same pool as Muguruza and partner Carla Suarez Navarro.

Singles

Red Group

Simona Halep (Romania)

Maria Sharapova (Russia)

Agnieszka Radwanska (Poland)

Flavia Pennetta (Italy)

White Group

ADVERTISEMENT

Article continues below this ad

Garbine Muguruza (Spain)

Petra Kvitova (Czech Republic)

Angelique Kerber (Germany)

ADVERTISEMENT

Article continues below this ad

Lucie Safarova (Czech Republic)

(Writing by Patrick Johnston in Singapore; editing by Sudipto Ganguly)

SHARE THIS ARTICLE :

Written by:

Dhruv George

14,311Articles

One take at a time

Dhruv George is a senior Formula One and NASCAR analyst for EssentiallySports, having authored nearly 12000 articles spanning different sports like F1, NASCAR, Tennis, NFL, and eSports. He graduated with a PG Diploma in Journalism from the Xavier Institute of Communications. Dhruv has also conducted interviews with F1 driver Pierre Gasly and Moto2 rider Tony Arbolino.
Show More>