Mirra Andreeva won 11 games in a row as she thrashed world number two Aryna Sabalenka to reach the last four at the WTA Finals.
French Open champion Andreeva was 4-1 down in the opening set before producing some superb tennis and taking advantage of an increasingly erratic Sabalenka performance.
The 19-year-old Russian went on to deliver a statement 6-4 6-0 victory over four-time major singles winner Sabalenka.
“I will be honest, I feel like Aryna did not have the best day,” Andreeva told Sky Sports.
“I feel like I cannot really take all the credit today – I feel like that is not very fair in some ways.
“I’m just happy. I had a goal in front of me to commit no matter what and control the things I can control.”
As poor as Sabalenka was, Andreeva produced a mature, intelligent performance to shut her out of the match.
She used loopy high balls to initially wrong-foot Sabalenka and then showcased her easy power, hitting 16 winners to only six unforced errors and creating brilliant angles from the baseline.
The only blip came when she found herself 15-30 down as she served for the first set. However, Andreeva calmly hit three aces in a row to take the lead and never looked back.
Second seed Sabalenka had taping on her knee but it did not seem to hinder her – this, rather, was a performance similar to some of the collapses she has had this year.
From having a double-break lead, Sabalenka only won a further 10 points in the match as Andreeva dominated.
The Belarusian hit 23 unforced errors and failed to produce a single ace at Indian Wells, where she won the WTA Tour title earlier this year.
Sabalenka lost deciding sets at the French Open and Berlin Open by a 6-0 scoreline this year, but this was a much quicker unravelling than those matches.
The result means the winner of the final group match on Friday between Sabalenka and Elina Svitolina will advance to the semi-finals, while Andreeva goes through as the group winner.
