One day after suffering her heaviest defeat since she was a teenager, Serena Williams was back to her brilliant best as she swatted aside Eugenie Bouchard 6-1, 6-1 in her final round robin match at the WTA Finals on Thursday.
The world number one was humiliated 6-0, 6-2 by Romania's Simona Halep on Singapore's purple hard court on Wednesday but put herself on the brink of a semifinals berth with the crushing victory over her hapless Canadian opponent.
Williams, who beat Ana Ivanovic in her opening match on Monday, has two wins and a loss and needs Halep just to win one set against the Serb to advance to the last four.
Ivanovic faces Halep in the final Red Group game on Friday. Halep is already assured of her place in the semis while Bouchard has been eliminated from the tournament after three straight defeats. With the win, Williams also remains on course to hold on to her number one ranking with her only rival, Maria Sharapova, facing an early exit from the tournament after the Russian lost her second straight contest earlier on Thursday.
Maria Sharpova's bid to end the year ranked number one was left hanging by a thread after she suffered a second straight defeat.
Sharapova was beaten 6-3, 6-2 by Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova in her White Group game.
Wozniacki edged closer to booking her place in the semifinals with an impressive 7-5, 6-3 win over Agnieszka Radwanska.
Showing no signs of fatigue after her exhausting three-set win over Sharapova two days earlier, Wozniacki rebounded from a slow start to overrun Radwanska with an ominous display.
Wozniacki was down an early service break in the opening set but quickly got back on terms and proved too strong for Radwanska, running the Pole ragged.
Wozniacki plays her final group match against Kvitova on Friday. The Czech lost her opening match to Radwanska but stayed in the hunt with a much better performance against Sharapova.
Williams forced three break points immediately and while Bouchard battled back to win a game that ensured Halep advanced to the semifinals, Williams exuded focus and aggression as she set about dismantling her opponent.
Sania-Cara win
Making their first appearance in the WTA Finals here, Sania Mirza and Cara Black started their campaign on the right foot by serving past Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears to book their semifinals berth.
The Indo-Zimbabwe pair, playing their last tournament together, were made to work hard by the US duo of Raquel and Abigail as they won the match in super tie-break 6-3, 2-6, 12-10.
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