Tennis: Garcia versus Williams and Pliskova versus Wozniacki today at the WTA Finals in Singapore

The semifinals at the WTA Finals in Singapore will be played without the number one WTA player. Simona Halep might even get to retain the year-end number one rank, unless Pliskova claims it by winning the tournament.

Caroline Garcia versus Venus Williams

We’ll have the hard-hitting American veteran play against the talented French woman. Caroline Garcia may not hit as hard as Venus Williams, but she can cut the points short by moving to the net where she is quite comfortable because of her experience as a doubles player. Venus off-course will bring all her experience to this match and find a way to win. Will experience trump youth or will youth find a way to come out ahead? With a 1-1 head-to-head record between them and their fight-back capacities of late, anything is possible here, but we’d give a slight edge to Caroline Garcia.

Outcome: Caroline Garcia over Venus Williams in three sets.

Karolina Pliskova versus Caroline Wozniacki

The slow court of the tournament has been surprisingly kind to Karolina Pliskova affording her more time to execute her flat, and hard ground shots.

Pliskova’s serve, her main weapon, is working well for her in this tournament. The slow surface, apparently, is helping her win easy points on her first serve. “I think this surface is making quite big difference with the serves, because even though I don’t hit great first serve, I still can have a point of it, which on some surfaces, when it slides really into the hand, I can have a good return back, which is not happening here, so I have quite a lot of points from the first serve and also few aces,” Pliskova said.

Caroline Wozniacki is relishing these courts and seemed quite sure of herself here until the loss to Caroline Garcia in her last round robin. Wozniacki had qualified for the semifinal prior to her match against Garcia, and that inevitability might have been a factor in her loss to Garcia.

Although their head-to-head record is 5-3 in favor of Caroline Wozniacki, Pliskova, however, has won all three of those matches in 2017, and if Karolina Pliskova’s serve is clicking, she will have a good shot at winning this too.

Outcome: Karolina Pliskova over Caroline Wozniacki in three sets