MINSK, 29 October (BelTA) – Belarus' Aryna Sabalenka and Elise Mertens of Belgium lost their opener at the Shiseido WTA Finals Shenzhen, BelTA has learned.
In the Red Group first round the Belarusian-Belgian duo lost to Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany and Demi Schuurs of the Netherlands, 5-7, 6-1, 7-10. In the other encounter, Timea Babos of Hungary and France's Kristina Mladenovic kicked off the session of play with a 6-2, 5-7, 10-6 victory over Latisha Chan and Chan Hao-ching from China's Taipei.
In the Purple Group singles opener Ukraine's world number 8 Elina Svitolina held off world number 2 Karolina Pliskova of the Czech Republic 7-6, 6-4.
Romania's world number 5 Simona Halep defeated Canada's world number 4 Bianca Andreescu 3-6, 7-6, 6-3.
The prize money of the WTA Finals which is to run through 3 November is $14 million.
Photos by Xinhua-BelTA