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Polish second seed Iga Swiatek moved within touching distance of the WTA Finals last four after a confident win against US Open champion Coco Gauff.<\/span><\/p>\n Gauff, 19, served for the second set at 5-4 but hit four double faults in a row to gift the break back to Swiatek.<\/span><\/p>\n Third seed Gauff, who can still qualify after thrashing Ons Jabeur, won one more point as Swiatek sealed victory.<\/span><\/p>\n “Coco is the kind of player who doesn’t give up so I knew it wouldn’t be that easy,” said Swiatek, who is aiming to regain her world number one ranking from Aryna Sabalenka at the season-ending event.<\/span><\/p>\n “The key is to stay focused on yourself. The conditions at the end were tricky so I was happy I could just survive and get through.<\/span><\/p>\n “You can’t predict which way the wind will go, it was swirling. It is uneasy but there is no reason to overthink it, you just have to adjust.”<\/span><\/p>\n The conditions were also set to be a factor later on Wednesday when Tunisia’s Jabeur faced seventh seed Marketa Vondrousova – in a repeat of this year’s Wimbledon final which the Czech won.<\/span><\/p>\n On Tuesday, American Jessica Pegula beat top seed Sabalenka in the other group to become the first player to reach the semi-finals.<\/span><\/p>\n Belarus’ Sabalenka plays Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina on Thursday to determine the second player to qualify from the group.<\/span><\/p>\n The Finals have been marred <\/span>by the players criticising the court conditions<\/span><\/a> at the venue, where the construction of the surface was only completed in the days before the tournament started on Sunday.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n