Serena, Halep win WTA Finals openers
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Singapore (SportsNetwork.com) - World No. 1 superstar Serena Williams and French Open runner-up Simona Halep were a pair of round-robin winners at the season-ending $6.5 million WTA Finals in Singapore.
The U.S. Open champion Williams won the Day 1 nightcap by handling seventh- seeded former No. 1 Ana Ivanovic 6-4, 6-4 on the hardcourts at Singapore Indoor Stadium.
Williams has captured this prestigious eight-player event four times, including the last two years in Istanbul. The American great, who beat Li Na in last year's final, is also a two-time Finals runner-up.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"I'm really excited with how I played tonight," Williams said. "To see all my fans over there was really exciting -- thank you so much!
"I've been working hard and am glad to be here. Today I was really fighting all the way. Ana played so well, I was just trying to fight as hard as I could. I was even losing my voice from shouting 'come on' so much!"
The resurgent Ivanovic is making her first WTA Finals appearance in six years.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"I'm definitely very disappointed that both sets I made few easy errors in the last service game," Ivanovic said. "Especially in the first set, you know. I had a break point in 4-all, which I didn't take and kind of got down a little bit on myself.
"Then I rushed a little bit in the next service game, so that was a little bit disappointing. I felt I created lots of chances, especially off the ground."
The fourth-seeded Halep opened the event Monday with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over fifth-seeded Wimbledon runner-up Eugenie Bouchard. Both Halep and Bouchard are making their WTA Finals debuts this week.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"I played really well and am really happy to have found my game again," Halep said. "I played aggressive at the right times and hit some winners.
"She [Bouchard] is a great player and is very young and will definitely be at the top for a long time."
Tuesday's matches will pit second-seeded French Open champion Maria Sharapova against eighth-seeded U.S. Open runner-up Caroline Wozniacki and third-seeded Wimbledon champ Petra Kvitova versus sixth-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska. Sharapova captured this tournament in 2004 and is a two-time runner-up, while Kvitova was the WTA Finals champ in 2011 and Wozniacki was a finalist in 2010.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Williams (1-0) leads this week's four-player Red Group, which also features Halep (1-0), Bouchard (0-1) and Ivanovic (0-1). Sharapova (0-0) heads up the four-woman White Group, which also features Kvitova (0-0), Radwanska (0-0) and Wozniacki (0-0).