Caroline Woznaicki produced an almost perfect display to dismantle world number one Simona Halep 6-0, 6-2 at the WTA Finals on Wednesday, the Dane recording her second dominant victory in as many matches.
Wozniacki had marked her fifth appearance at the season-ending tournament with a 6-2, 6-0 victory over Ukraine's Elina Svitolina on Monday and Romania's Halep appeared equally as powerless against the 27-year-old former number one.
The Dane is now virtually assured of a semi-finals berth after losing just four games in two matches, while Halep lives to fight another day after her opening straight sets victory over Caroline Garcia gives her a 1-1 record in the Red Group.
Wozniacki has been the form player on the WTA Tour this season, winning 58 matches, reaching seven finals and claiming one tournament victory in Tokyo last month, and she has retained that consistency in both her wins in Singapore.
The rankings show Halep as the world leader and Wozniacki in sixth but the Romanian was utterly outclassed in the opener as her opponent raced through it in 23 minutes without dropping a game, on the back of a 94 per cent first serve success rate.
"I think I played really well today and stayed aggressive throughout. I didn't expect to be leading by that much in the first set and I started to think 'what's happening? Am I really playing that well?'," Wozniacki said in a courtside interview.
Halep had been as much a spectator as the stunned crowd packed into the Singapore Indoor Stadium and although she tried to rouse herself after getting to 30-30 in the first game of the second set, Wozniacki held firm for a 1-0 lead.
The Dane, who was painting the corners on both her backhand and forehand sides, had won 17 games in a row across her last two matches before Halep finally got on the scoreboard after 34 minutes when she held to love.
The respite was fleeting, however, as Wozniacki continued to punish Halep's scrappy forehand to break once more for a 3-1 lead and an ace snuffed out the only break point the Dane would face all match as she moved within two games of victory.
Another poor forehand error handed Wozniacki a match point after a little more than an hour, which she duly converted with a forehand winner to cap an incredible display.
"I just stayed positive, took the ball early and went for my shots," the Dane added.
"It's a great court for me as I was putting spin on the ball to get in position for my shots and wait for the right opportunities to hit my winners."
Frenchwoman Garcia and Svitolina were next on court with both debutants searching for a first win at the tournament after straight-set losses in their openers.
Garcia finds joy among the tears to overcome Svitolina
Caroline Garcia has been on a whirlwind ride that carried her into the WTA Finals following back-to-back titles in China and the Frenchwoman admitted to almost letting her emotions get the better of her as she faced an early exit on Wednesday.
The world number eight was down a set and a break to Elina Svitolina in the second round-robin match of her tournament debut and suddenly burst into tears as she walked back on court following a pep-talk from her coach and father Louis-Paul.
"I cannot say I handled it very well. Everyone saw it. I didn't handle it very well at all," Garcia told reporters following the incident that seemed to trigger the comeback in her 6-7(7) 6-3 7-5 victory over her Ukrainian opponent.
"It's often like this and I tried to improve this part of myself. I play with my emotions on show and sometimes it gets too much," the 24-year-old added
"The loss of the first set was very difficult because I had some chances and some set points, but sometimes you have to just let it go and keep going.
"My dad came over and I don't know what we talked about. I just, like - it just all came out."
Garcia lost her tournament opener to world number one Simona Halep on Monday and another defeat would have spelled the end of her interest in Singapore, yet somehow she battled back in the second set against Svitolina and did so again in the third.
"There were so many ups-and-downs in this match, a little bit like the one we played in Beijing (where Garcia also won in three sets). She was serving very well in the last set up until 5-3 and then I got a look at her second serve," she said.
"I knew this was my last chance, so I went for it. I tried to be even more aggressive, tried to hit it down the line and I was more accurate. I was also patient on the long rallies, and it made the difference."
To reach the semi-finals, Garcia needs to overcome an unbeaten Caroline Wozniacki in her final Red Group match on Friday and hope Svitolina beats Halep.
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