No Serena Wiliams on board and Maria Sharapova 'still' couldn't win the title in SINGAPORE. The victory went to deserving Agnieszka Radwanska who edged Petra Kvitova in a thriller to win the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global - the biggest title of the former World No.2's career.
It was a true underdog story - not only did she leave the US Open three spots out of even qualifying for the event, but after battling just to make it into the field, she was a longshot just to make the final four, having lost her first two round robin matches against Maria Sharapova and Flavia Pennetta.
But a win over Simona Halep in her third round robin match and a little help from Sharapova took her to the semifinals, and she pulled off another surprise there, grinding past Garbiñe Muguruza in three dramatic sets - her first victory over the Spanish WTA Rising Star in five attempts this year.
And then, longtime rival and fellow former No.2 Kvitova in the final. Kvitova was also playing on a new breath of life, going 1-2 in the round robin portion herself before reviving her game and battling her way into the final, pulling off a stunning upset over the red-hot Sharapova in Saturday's semifinals.
Radwanska came out on fire, capitalizing on a few untimely unforced errors from the Kvitova racquet to build an early 6-2, 2-0 lead. Kvitova started to find the range on her huge lefty game, winning eight of the next 10 games to sneak out the second set, 6-4, and build a 2-0 lead in the deciding set.
But the No.5-seeded Radwanska had one last fight left, breaking back to get to 3-all and then pulling away from there, winning three more games to finish off the No.4-seeded Kvitova, 6-2, 4-6, 6-3.
"A few weeks ago I didn't even know I'd have a chance to be here, and there you go. It's just an incredible day for me," an emotional Radwanska said during her on-court interview after the match.
"It means everything. It couldn't be any better. I think that was the biggest day in my life."
Just how well did Radwanska play in the final? Five - just five - unforced errors the entire match, with three times the winners (15). Kvitova, meanwhile, finished with 41 winners to 53 unforced errors.
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