Johanna Konta has been denied a place at the WTA Finals at the 11th hour, after Svetlana Kuznetsova won the Kremlin Cup in Moscow to leapfrog the Briton in the race for qualification.
On the eve of the season-ending showpiece in Singapore, which features the top eight players in the world, Kuznetsova, the top seed and defending champion, overwhelmed the naturalised Australian Daria Gavrilova in straight sets, 6-2, 6-1.
Kuznetsova’s success leaves Konta, who has been named the most improved player on the WTA Tour this year after breaking into the top 10 for the first time and reaching the Australian Open semi-finals, to rue the abdominal strain that forced her to withdraw from the Hong Kong Open and has kept her sidelined since. She had previously been in pole position to complete the lineup at the eight-woman WTA Finals after Serena Williams pulled out with a shoulder injury.
Konta, seemingly fit again after appearing on the practice courts in Singapore, where she participated in the buildup to the event, could yet feature as first alternate in the event of any further withdrawals.
In the meantime, however, the ninth-ranked Kuznetsova will board a flight to Singapore, bruised but buoyed after a hectic week that has brought four wins in four days and 470 ranking points, enough to edge Konta out of the frame by 95 points.
“I was trying not to think about Singapore all week,” said Kuznetsova. “I was playing match by match and I’m so happy to win.”
With prize money of more than $150,000 on offer for each group win at the round-robin event, Kuznetsova’s second successive title on the indoor hard courts of Moscow’s Olympic Stadium could yield a return far beyond the $141,700 cheque she picked up for claiming her second tournament victory of 2016.
The Russian will line up in white group, alongside second-seed Agnieszka Radwanska, whom she will face on Monday in her first match, as well as the French Open champion, Garbiñe Muguruza, and the US Open finalist Karolina Pliskova.
The Red group is headlined by the world No1, Angelique Kerber, with Simona Halep, Madison Keys and Dominika Cibulkova completing the field.
Kuznetsova, a former French and US Open champion, overwhelmed the Moscow-born Gavrilova – who at the age of 22 was contesting her first WTA Tour final – in just over an hour.
