Facing a red-hot Anett Kontaveit right now in Guadalajara is not the time or place for opponents.
A dominant Kontaveit commanded the center of the court charging through eight straight games dismantling Karolina Pliskova 6-4, 6-0 to secure her semifinal spot in the WTA Finals.
A streaking Kontaveit scored her 12th straight win without dropping serve. It was Kontaveit's 28th win in her last 30 matches.
How hot is Kontaveit right now? She's rolled through 24 of the last 25 sets she's played raising her 2021 record to 47-15 with a WTA Tour-best 38th hard court victory. By the final stages of today's beatdown, Kontaveit was cracking winners almost at will.
The last woman to qualify for the season-ending event is the first to reach the final four.
"Of course I'm very happy," Kontaveit said. "I mean, I was really excited to even qualify for this tournament.
"Really tried to stay focused and focus on every match that I had coming up. I'm very happy I've managed to do that. Definitely very thrilled to be in the semifinals."
The eighth-seeded Estonian, who swept reigning Roland Garros champion Barbora Krejcikova in her opener, advances from the Tenochtitlán Group in the round-robin event. Sixth-seeded Garbine Muguruza meets the second-seeded Krejcikova in their second round-robin matches tonight with the loser likely out of semifinal contention. If Krejcikova loses in straight sets tonight she is eliminated from advancing to the semifinals.
Though Pliskova had permitted just one set winning all three prior meetings vs. Kontaveit, the Wimbledon finalist learned this is a much more confident and clear-minded Kontaveit.
"Of course, I beat her a couple times, so I knew about her game," Pliskova said. "Of course, you can see she's confident. I'm sure she's lucky at some times, but of course she's playing great tennis right now.
"Sometimes I think when you are on this kind of streak of winning matches, you don't really thinking what to do, how to do, what happens if you play like this. I think she's just really not thinking much, playing great tennis overall, for sure with a lot of confidence. But to me, it was not about like if she's playing well or not. I was playing normal and she was just playing extremely well today, so that was the case."
Kontaveit held her ground and showed plenty of positive emotion powering through a hold at 15 for 5-4.
Fortune favored the Estonian who hit a return that crashed into the tape and bounced twice on the top of the net before tumbling over on Pliskova's side of the court. Kontaveit hammered her two-handed backhand, scrambled up to Pliskova’s short reply and thumped a smash to take a one-set lead after 36 minutes.
Kontaveit saved all three break points she faced in the set and converted her first break point to take the opening set. The eighth-ranked Kontaveit took the court with a 40-2 record on the season when winning the first set and proved to be a ferocious front-runner today.
Stepping into the court to pin Pliskova in her backhand corner, Kontaveit cracked a backhand down the line, followed it in and fired a forehand winner breaking for a 2-0 second-set lead.
The WTA ace leader was not troubling Kontaveit on serve in the second set.
The Moscow champion pounced on a slice serve and slammed a forehand return crosscourt scoring her third consecutive break for 4-0 with a devastating strike that left a dazed Pliskova staring at the court.
A fired up Kontaveit continued her barrage blasting her sixth ace down the middle sealing a love hold with her seventh straight game for 5-0. Kontaveit closed a 57-minute thrashing with a shout winning 24 of 29 first-serve points for her first win over Pliskova.
Is Kontaveit the clear favorite to take her biggest title in her WTA Finals debut? Oddschecker lists the Estonian as a 7 to 4 favorite ahead of Paula Badosa. Kontaveit doesn't care about pecking order, she just wants to ride this winning wave.
"I physically feel very good," Kontaveit said. "I'm just really looking forward to another challenge. I mean, everybody here is tough, so it's going to be a tough match. I'm definitely going to give my all and fight for everything.
"Just hopefully play consistent, a good match. I'm really looking forward to competing again. The crowd has been really nice and supportive. I'm just having a very good time on court. I'm really looking forward to another match."
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