Elina Svitolina pulled out all the stops en route to reaching her second consecutive final at the WTA Finals, and a superb slice forehand was one of her hottest shots of the year.

At a crucial moment in the second set against Simona Halep in the group stage, Svitolina's surprise tactic earned your votes as the final Shot of the Month for 2019, presented by Cambridge Global Payments.

"I think many people were surprised. Even myself because I played it that well," the Ukrainian said of her hot shot.

"Honestly, I actually played many more of these shots when I was growing up...lots of slicing. It was actually working a lot for myself because my coach at that time, he really hated that shot.

"But you see here, it brought me a point, a very important one. Surprised the opponent. You never know. It might help me in the future, too."

Shot of the Month, October 2019: Contenders

Final Results for October's Shot of the Month
1. Elina Svitolina
2. Aryna Sabalenka
3. Dayana Yastremska
4. Ons Jabeur

How it works: hot shots are selected by wtatennis.com for every month, and the winner is then determined by a fan vote on wtatennis.com.

Previous WTA Shots of the Month in 2019
January: Hsieh Su-wei
Februray: Simona Halep
March: Kirsten Flipkens
April: Iga Swiatek
May: Simona Halep
June: Caroline Wozniacki
July: Patricia Maria Tig
August: Bethanie Mattek-Sands / CoCo Vandeweghe
September: Monica Puig
October: Elina Svitolina