Sofia, Bulgaria – Nadia Petrova went 3-0 in round-robin play and captured her group this week at the $750,000 Tournament of Champions.
The second-seeded Russian was perfect in the four-player Sredets Group in Sofia after coming from behind to beat eighth-seeded heavy Bulgarian crowd favorite Tsvetana Pironkova, 5-7, 6-1, 6-3, Friday on the indoor hardcourts at Armeets Arena. Pironkova (1-2), like Petrova, had already qualified for Saturday's semifinals at this season-ending event.
Petrova's semifinal opponent will be fourth-seeded Italian Roberta Vinci (2-1), while Pironkova should have her hands full with top-seeded former world No. 1 Caroline Wozniacki (3-0).
Wozniacki captured this week's four-player Serdika Group.
Also on Friday, fifth-seeded Taiwanese Su-Wei Hsieh (1-2) held off seventh- seeded Slovakian veteran Daniela Hantuchova, 6-1, 0-6, 6-4, and Swedish alternate Sofia Arvidsson (1-0) was leading sixth-seeded Zheng Jie (0-3) when the Chinese retired from their bout while trailing 1-5 in the first set due to an upper respiratory illness. Hantuchova, like Zheng, went a dismal 0-3 this week. Arvidsson replaced ill third-seeded Russian Maria Kirilenko (1-1) in the eight-woman field on Thursday.
The Tournament of Champions is the finale for the WTA's International Series, with the six highest-ranked players who have won an International title this year -- and two wild cards -- comprising an eight-woman field. The Serdika Group boasted Wozniacki, Vinci, Hsieh and Hantuchova, while the four-player Sredets Group featured Petrova, Zheng, Pironkova and Arvidsson, following Kirilenko's withdrawal.
The tournament format sees two round-robin groups play out over the first four days, with the semifinals on Saturday and the final on Sunday.
Receive your weekly recap of all the happenings around the world of sports.