World number two Iga Swiatek was eliminated from the WTA Finals on Thursday after Barbora Krejcikova defeated Coco Gauff to secure her spot in the semifinals at the expense of the Pole.
The Czech Wimbledon champion claimed a 7-5, 6-4 victory over Gauff to end the title defence of Swiatek, who needed Krejcikova to lose in order to progress from the group stage.
With one win and one loss under her belt entering the last day of round-robin play, Swiatek's 6-1, 6-0 victory over alternate Daria Kasatkina did not have any bearing on her qualification chances.
The only scenario that would have led to Swiatek's advancement to the semifinals would have been a Gauff win over Krejcikova.
That result did not materialise though and Krejcikova punched her ticket to the semifinals of the WTA Finals for the first time - on her second singles appearance.
Krejcikova moves forward as the winner of the Orange Group and will face Zheng Qinwen in Friday's last-four stage, with Gauff of the USA advancing as the runner-up to set up a semifinal showdown with world number one Aryna Sabalenka.
"Definitely this is a big win for me. I'm really happy with how I played and with my performance today. It was a really big match," said Krejcikova, who saved a remarkable 11 of 12 break points against Gauff.
"Playing tomorrow again is something unimaginable before this tournament and I'm really proud of myself and I'm looking forward to the new challenges.
"I was just fighting for every ball and I knew it's going to be difficult because I know Coco is on a roll and she's one of the best players this season. That was a huge challenge but also the big prize, the semis was on the table. I am super excited to be here."
Gauff saved two match points in a 10-minute final game and had three opportunities to break Krejcikova but the eighth seed would not fold, and she scooped the victory with a service winner after one hour and 42 minutes of play.
Krejcikova, who has won just 21 matches this season, earned her place in the WTA Finals field due to a new rule introduced by the Tour in 2024, which gives priority to a reigning Grand Slam champion over the eighth-ranked player in the race.
As the Wimbledon champion, Krejcikova grabbed the last spot in Riyadh over world number eight Emma Navarro, who chose not to come to Saudi Arabia as an alternate.
'DID EVERYTHING I COULD'
Kasatkina, who made $200,000 as an alternate called in to replace an injured Jessica Pegula in Thursday's schedule, does not think the new rule should have been implemented and believes the top eight in the year-to-end WTA Race should be the ones competing in the WTA Finals.
"In my opinion, the WTA Race is the WTA Race. So it's about how many points you earn during the year. If you win a Grand Slam, you already got what you achieved. You won the Grand Slam, points, money, glory, everything," explained Kasatkina, who noted that she would have still been the first alternate had the rule not been introduced.
Earlier in the day, Swiatek crushed Kasatkina in a mere 51 minutes and later admitted she had no idea her qualification chances solely depended on the result of the evening match.
"Honestly, I don't think it matters, like we go out on court to win every match anyway. So I wasn't thinking about that. I didn't know that this is the case," said the Pole.
"If I'm not going to play semis, then I'll have a couple of days off, and I can't take back time and play better in the match that I played against Coco. I won two matches in the group, so I guess I did everything I could to be there."
Swiatek's season is not over yet as she plans on leading Poland in the Billie Jean King Cup Finals, which kick off in Malaga on November 13.