Elina Svitolina beat Aryna Sabalenka 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 in a winner-takes-all final group match at the WTA Finals in Indian Wells on Friday, November 13, taking the last semifinal spot and ending the second seed’s season. FINAL: Elina Svitolina 6-3, 3-6, 6-1, Aryna Sabalenka. Both players arrived at 1-1 in Group 2, and only one of them was leaving with a place in the last four.
A Winner-Takes-All Match Decided The Last Semifinal Spot
The stakes were set before a ball was struck: the winner finished second in Group 2 behind Mirra Andreeva, the loser went home. The WTA’s own report traces how Svitolina survived the swings. Sabalenka broke in the opening game, Svitolina broke straight back, then leaned on her second serve to save two break points at 3-3 before running away with the first set. Sabalenka took the second set by the same 6-3 score, and the match came down to one set for a semifinal place.
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Svitolina owned that set. She broke early, broke again for 5-1 and served out a 6-1 decider, converting six of her eight break points across the match and closing it on her fourth match point after one hour and 53 minutes. Sabalenka won just one game in the third set, the opener, and lost the last six games of her season.
First Win Over Sabalenka In Six Years
The history between them made the result an upset with paperwork. Sabalenka had won their last five meetings and all three they had ever played on a hard court, and Svitolina had not beaten her since Strasbourg in 2020. Friday was Svitolina’s first hard-court win over Sabalenka, and the WTA notes it is the first time she has reached the WTA Finals semifinals after losing her opening match of the week.
Her route explains the week. She lost her opener to Andreeva, then beat Karolina Muchova 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 to end Muchova’s run of 32 straight wins after taking the first set, just to give herself a match worth playing on Friday. “Very happy with the performance. It was not an easy match. It was a little bit of a roller coaster,” Svitolina told Sky Sports. “I played well in the first set, she stepped up the game and the third I tried to put an ‘extra’ ball over the net.”
Sabalenka’s Season Ends Without A Major Title
For Sabalenka, the elimination closes a season that promised more. She arrived in Indian Wells as the second seed and the favourite for the title after world number one Elena Rybakina withdrew on the eve of the tournament. She leaves with a group-stage exit: she had reached the knockout rounds in each of the previous four years and lost last year’s final to Rybakina. The WTA’s official match notes show what was on her side of the draw: a fifth straight semifinal would have equalled Serena Williams for the most by any player since the round-robin format returned in 2003. It will not happen.
The ranking cost is set as well. Sabalenka, a finalist at the Australian Open and the US Open this year, finishes her first season without a major title since 2022 and ends the year at world number three, with Andreeva confirmed to pass her and take over as world number two on Monday.
Semifinals Set For Saturday In Indian Wells
Svitolina, the 2018 champion playing this event for the first time since she reached the 2019 final, now faces Wimbledon champion Linda Noskova, the Group 1 winner, in Saturday’s semifinals at Indian Wells Tennis Garden. In the other semifinal, Andreeva plays Jessica Pegula: Andreeva finished the group stage 3-0 without dropping a set, closing Friday with a 6-2, 6-1 win over Diana Shnaider in 55 minutes. At 19, Andreeva is the youngest player to reach the knockout stages of this tournament in 17 years, and the youngest this century to win each of her first three matches at the Finals, passing Serena Williams. The final of the $10 million, eight-day event is Sunday, November 15.
“I knew from the start of the tournament this would be a possibility but I have no regrets or complaints. I’m in the semi-final and that’s amazing for me,” Svitolina said. A week that started with a 6-4, 6-0 loss is now one win from another WTA Finals championship match.
