Cibulkova currently sits ninth on the leaderboard – just behind eighth-placed Johanna Konta. And she went some way to securing her place at the WTA Finals by seeing off Pavlyunchenkova, 7-6(3), 6-4.

The Russian did her best to stay with the No.2 seed, though, taking the first set to a tie-break and coming back from 4-1 down and saving multiple match points to win the ninth game in the second set.

She was determined not to lose the title she won in 2015 when she beat Anna-Lena Friedsam. Cibulkova won out, though – and put herself in prime position to book her Singapore slot.

“I knew it was not going to be easy,” Cibulkova admitted afterwards. “She won this tournament, so she’s feeling good here. I tried to play my good tennis. It was not easy to finish both sets, but I was really strong mentally.”