Cibulkova is Cinderella in Singapore

Dominika Cibulkova completed an improbable run to win the WTA finals title in Singapore.  As the 7^th of 8 to qualify, she lost her first two round robin matches, first to Kerber and then to Madison Keys.  In order to have a chance to play make the semifinals, she had to beat Simona Halep in straight sets.  Simona Halep is no easy out, but she came into her match with Cibulkova suffering from a knee problem.  Cibulkova won that match and made it to the semis.

In the semis Dominika then beat Svetlana Kuznetsova, whose presence in the semis was also somewhat improbable.  She only qualified for the year-end championships by winning a tournament in Moscow the week before.  The semifinal match between Cibulkova and Kuznetsova was the best of the tournament, with Cibulkova winning in 3 sets.  Angelique Kerber had been cruising throughout the tournament, and defeated Aggie Radwanska, the defending champ, decisively in the semis.  It’s never easy to dominate Radwanska, so the stage appeared set for a great end to a great year for Kerber.

However Cibulkova, the human fire plug, would not be denied.  She played fantastic tennis in the final, with very few errors and a lot of winners.  When things are going perfectly for Cibulkova, as they were in this match, she can be hard to beat.  Recall that she made the final of the Australian Open in 2014, where she lost to Li Na.  So this was one of those super days for Dominika, and she took out Kerber in straights to win the biggest title of her career.   Although Kerber was surely disappointed by the loss, she can hardly feel down about the year she had.  She won two majors and gained the world number one ranking.  She is definitely the player of the year on the WTA.

Other finalists with notable years were Karolina Pliskova, who reached her first major final in New York, and Garbine Muguruza, who won her first major in Paris.  Muguruza, despite her breakthrough at the French Open, has some soul searching and work to do in the off-season if she wants to go to the very top.  She is frequently hampered in matches by emotional ups and downs which cause her to play poorly for stretches.  In her round robin match with Pliskova, for example, she served for the match twice but still lost.  In tennis, where big points, rather than the most points, determine match outcomes, poor play at the wrong moments can be devastating.  Muguruza must learn this principle by improving her awareness of key moments in matches and making sure she plays her best when it counts most.