Garbine Muguruza

Spain's Garbine Muguruza moved to the brink of the WTA Finals last four with a 6-4 6-4 win over Angelique Kerber yesterday after Petra Kvitova opened her account with a 7-5 7-5 victory over fellow Czech Lucie Safarova.

Muguruza (2-0) came into the tournament on the back of her first premier level tournament win in Beijing at the start of the month and backed up her impressive opening round-robin win over Safarova with another straight sets victory over Kerber.

Kvitova (1-1), Kerber (1-1) and Safarova (0-2) can all still advance to the last four from the 'White Group' with one round to play but Muguruza is in prime position to advance as the winner of the four-player pool in Singapore.

"Every time I step on the court against Angelique it seems to be a tough match so I knew I had to be at my best today to secure the victory," Muguruza said.

The 22-year-old Muguruza started the contest full of positive intent. At 4-4 she increased her intensity levels a notch and closed out the set with a blistering serve that Kerber sent sailing over the baseline.

Muguruza, who started the season ranked outside the top 20, continued to apply pressure at the start of the second as Kerber hung on by her fingernails, until the Spaniard finally converted her sixth break point of the set to edge 3-2 ahead.

Kerber refused to buckle, however, and broke back against the run of play in the eighth game before Muguruza wrestled back control in what had become a baseline slugfest, then closed out the contest as her demoralised opponent wilted under a barrage of booming forehands.

Earlier, Kvitova got her campaign back on track with a hard-fought victory over Fed Cup team mate Safarova to record her first win of the week on the Singapore Indoor Stadium's purple hard court.

Both women had lost their openers on Monday so were desperate to pick up a much-needed win and it was the double Wimbledon champion who made the most of her opportunities on the key points to emerge victorious.