WTA rising star Garbine Muguruza celebrated her 22nd birthday by sealing her place at the WTA Finals Singapore with a hard-fought victory over Mirjana Lucic-Baroni in the third round of the China Open here on Thursday.
On a rollercoaster evening, Muguruza weathered an early storm to prevail, 1-6, 6-2, 6-1, and joined Simona Halep and Maria Sharapova in the singles field of eight, with five more spots yet to be determined.
"I was really nervous before the match, because I knew I could get to Singapore and it was also my birthday," Muguruza said.
Muguruza will make her first appearance at the WTA Finals in the singles field, qualifying in doubles at last year's event.
"I'm very excited to have qualified for the WTA Finals in Singapore," she said. "This has been an exciting year for me. I have worked very hard this last month and I am really happy how it had paid off. Qualifying to Singapore is a great reward. I have great memories from Singapore last year playing doubles and this time I am looking forward to compete against the best singles players in the world."
Muguruza, who turned 22 on Thursday, reached the final last week at the Wuhan Open and is currently into the quarterfinals at the China Open in Beijing.
The Spaniard also reached her debut Grand Slam final at Wimbledon and won two doubles titles at the Aegon Classic Birmingham and Tokyo Open.
