© Lintao Zhang/ Getty Images
Beatriz Haddad Maia’s name resonated the loudest at the end of the WTA Elite Trophy on Sunday, after the singles and doubles finals. The 27-year-old won the singles title against Qinwen Zheng 7-6(11), 7-6(4). The match ended nine minutes before the clock hit three hours.
The match had a few service breaks despite it eventually got wrapped up in tie-breaks. Not much separated the two players, when it came to winning first-serve points. Haddad Maia won 69% of her first-serve points while her opponent won 70%.
Zheng let in Haddad Maia when it came to winning second-serve return points with the latter winning 56% of second-serve return points. On her own second serve, the Brazilian won 12 of 24 points played. In the first set, Haddad Maia needed four set points to gain the lead over the home favourite.
The latter, too, had a trio of set points but Haddad Maia was successful in thwarting all of them. In the second set, 21-year-old Zheng did well to prevent her older rival from serving out the match in the 10th game. But she never once reached set point in the set even as Haddad Maia finished off the second set tie-break, relatively quickly.
