SINGAPORE - Playing the last Tour event of her professional career, Flavia Pennetta sure is not in Singapore just to make up the numbers.
The Italian rallied to beat Agnieszka Radwanska 7-6 (7-5), 6-4 on Tuesday afternoon at the Singapore Indoor Stadium, keeping herself in contention for a spot in the semi-finals of the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global.
Twice a break down in the first set, Pennetta, the world No. 8 and reigning US Open champion, turned up the heat, with her potent backhand her frequent weapon of choice in the match. She was 3-5 against world No. 6 Radwanska before the match.
Pennetta is making her debut appearance at the WTA Finals, but lost her first match against Simona Halep on Sunday when she was trounced 6-0, 6-3.
The result keeps her hopes of making it past the group stages alive, but neither is it all over for Radwanska. This, after Maria Sharapova handed top seed Simona Halep a defeat, winning 6-4, 6-4.
Said the Russian world No. 4 after her second straight win: "It got really tough and those are the moments you have to get through when you haven't played in a long time. Especially against the world No. 2, these matches don't come easy and it showed in the end."
The results extends Sharapova's record against the Romanian to 6-0.
While Sharapova is the only undefeated player in the Red Group, she is yet to be guaranteed a place in the semi-finals. It will come down to the players' final round-robin matches on Thursday.