Advantage whom? Powerful Kvitova or crafty Radwanska?
— -- That chirping "beep, beep, beep" you heard a few days ago was the sound of two players freighted with unimpressive 1-2 records in the round-robin segment backing into the semifinals of the WTA Finals.
On Sunday, one of them, either No. 4 seed Petra Kvitova or No. 5 Agnieszka Radwanska, will win the year-end championships and thereby become the first player with a losing round-robin record to do so.
If Radwanska wins, it will be her first WTA Finals title and the premier win of her career. Kvitova won this title the first time she qualified to play for it as part of the elite eight-field in 2011, and she's triumphed twice at Wimbledon.
This one is a particularly difficult match to handicap, which seems only natural because this was the most topsy-turvy, unpredictable WTA Finals in recent memory. It seemed almost destined to turn out this way because of the absence of the dominant player this season, Serena Williams, who won three Grand Slams in 2015.
For a while, it appeared that the vacuum might be filled by any number of appealing, emerging narratives. There was the resurgence of Maria Sharapova, the potential major statement by Simona Halep and the breakthrough by Garbine Muguruza. But the themes all fell apart.
But while Sunday's final seems unpredictable, it might also be spectacular. For one thing, it's a terrific matchup of an explosive power-player versus a crafty, creative defender. Radwanska will need all of her magical touch to do anything with that wicked lefty hook serve of Kvitova's. And the 25-year-old Czech will be hard-pressed to keep up with Radwanska once the groundstrokes begin flying.
Kvitova is almost sure to give Radwanska some looks at second serves. Coming into Singapore, Kvitova had put 62 percent of her first serves into play. A below par serving day will leave Kvitova exposed, because she won't be able to match wits -- or skills -- with Radwanska.
If Kvitova is confident enough to play aggressive tennis, Radwanska will suffer when she's serving. Although Radwanska does a good job of avoiding double faults, her second serve is relatively weak. She put 66 percent of her first serves into play in regular tour events in 2015. If Radwanska can get that up into the 70s, Kvitova will have more trouble teeing off with her return.
Kvitova's lefty slice, especially in conjunction with an approach and follow-up volley, could cause problems for Radwanska. But on the whole, once the ball is in play, Radwanska's retrieving skills and her imaginative use of the court give her a distinct edge.
The determining factor might be emotional. Radwanska has had a tough year. Ranked as high as No. 2 and a Wimbledon finalist in 2012, she fell to No. 15 at the most recent US Open. She had a terrific fall, though, and made a successful, if exhausting, push to qualify for the WTA Finals. In Singapore, Radwanska recovered -- with a lot of unexpected help -- from losses in her first two matches to slide into the semis, where she stunned Muguruza 6-7(5), 6-3, 7-5 on Saturday for the first time in five meetings this year.
That 2-hour, 38-minute struggle had to be cathartic, and it left Radwanska addressing the crowd with tears in her eyes.
"I have no words really," Radwanska said. "After two matches, I thought it was over for me."
Kvitova leads the rivalry with Radwanska 6-2, but the women split their past two meetings. Radwanska won their 2014 match in this same event. In fact, both of the 26-year-old Pole's wins have been at the year-end championships, and she's lost just five games and no sets on each occasion.
An omen? Perhaps Radwanska's moment has finally arrived.
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