Kerber, Cibulkova Reach Singapore Semifinals

The round-robin action in the Red Group at the WTA Finals in Singapore wrapped up on Thursday, and it was world number one Angelique Kerber and Dominika Cibulkova who reached the semifinals with victories.

Heading into Thursday, Cibulkova needed to notched a win against Simona Halep but also required some help from Kerber, who was playing Madison Keys. With a straight-sets win over Halep and a straight-set victory from Kerber over Keys, the Slovak would advance to the final four.

And that is just what happened. Despite losing her first two-round robin matches, Cibulkova continued to fight and defeated Halep 6-3, 7-6(5) to knock out Halep, and keep her chances alive.

“This win is really, really big for me,” said Cibulkova. “I feel relieved. I’m really, really happy about my win, about the way I played and the way I handled the situation and the pressure.

It seems like I’m playing my best tennis under the most pressure. You know, it’s just a great feeling to beat Simona in two sets—knowing that if I want to go further in the tournament, I have to beat her in two sets. That made me even stronger in the second set.”

So with her victory, it was up to Kerber to complete the Cibulkova wish list. If Keys were to take one set off of the world number one, the American would advance to the semifinals.

But as she has been the majority of 2016, Kerber was clinical on Thursday, breezing past Keys 6-3, 6-3, booking her spot in the semifinals while also confirming Cibulkova’s spot in the final four.

The last two semifinal spots will be determined on Friday when the white group concludes its round-robin play.