WTA Oct 26-Nov 1: WTA Champ's WTA Championships Doha, Qatar Khalifa Tennis Complex PREMIER $4,500,000 8RR/0q/4d outdoor: hard   Plexipave Live Scores WTA .pdf: draws & OOP - notes pics: Yahoo! - WTA TV: Tennis Channel & ESPN2 Doha: weather forecast Champ's qualifying standings # # # # # # # #

Tourney pages: WTA Championships: 2008 - 2007 - 2006 - 2005 - 2004 - 2003 previous other tourney pages next Madrid 2007: #6 Maria Sharapova 6' 2" 130lb RH 2H-BH Madrid 2007: #1 Justine Henin 5' 5¾" 126lb RH 1H-BH Madrid 2007: 2nd WTA Champ's Title 39th WTA Singles Title

    The WTA Championships draw is not yet available. Championship round robin groups are usually determined, and the drawsheet posted, on the Saturday before tourney week. Play in Doha does not begin until Tuesday evening. The link is above for your convenience when the draw become available.

The WTA Championships System:     Eight top players are selected for singles play in the WTA Championships, based on all the ranking points they have earned during the current WTA Tour season (this differs slightly from the WTA Rankings, which only include a maximum of 17 tourneys in the point totals).     2 groups, Yellow and Red (the colors used for names have changed twice in recent years), play in a round-robin format (12 matches), with two winners from each group becoming semifinalists who play off on Saturday. In the semis, the player who finishes first in each group will play the second place finisher from the other group.     If players win the same number of matches, the winner of their head-to-head match in the round robin is placed higher in the standings. 3-way ties will be resolved first by the percentage of sets won, then by the percentage of games won.     Players who qualify for the WTA Championships (in singles) all receive at least $100,000; the champion receives $1 million.     4 doubles teams also play, with no prelims.

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WTA Championships 2007, Madrid:

    On Sunday in Madrid, in the final of the 2007 WTA Championships, the 2006 WTA champ (and six-time Grand Slam tourney champion), 25-year-old # 1 Justine Henin of Belgium (residence: Monte Carlo, Monaco) defeated the 2004 WTA champ (and 2004 Wimbledon and 2006 US Open champ), 20-year-old # 6 Maria Sharapova of Russia (residences: in California and in Bradenton, Florida, home of the Bollettieri Academy), 5-7, 7-5, 6-3 (photos shown).

    Justine said: "The end of the second set was really important; I broke [Maria], she broke me and I broke her again, so there was a lot of tension there. I think I took advantage of my opportunities more than she did, especially on the return...
    "This was one of the best moments of my career; to finish an amazing year with an amazing match, the longest I've ever played, makes me very happy. I felt pretty fresh physically but it was mentally and emotionally tough. And she played an amazing match - it's great to see her at her best level again." WTA story

    Maria said: "After a match of nearly three and a half hours, it is always disappointing to be the loser; but at the end of the week there can only be one winner and that was Justine. She really came through and played good tennis in the end. But I'm in a much better place than I was two weeks ago [with the shoulder injury]."

    Justine now leads Maria 6-2 in career matches, and won the last time they met, in the semifinals of last year's WTA Championships, 6-2, 7-6(5). Maria won their previous match, the final of the 2006 US Open, 6-4, 6-4.

    Justine, who has not been letting recent breathing problems affect her play, is now 39-16 in WTA singles finals, and has a 63-4 match record in 2007. Even though she did not play in January due to a divorce situation, Justine won 10 of her 39 titles this year: WTA Championships, Zurich, Stuttgart, US Open, Toronto, Eastbourne, French Open, Warsaw, Doha, and Dubai. Justine has now won 25 consecutive matches, and is the first player since Steffi Graf in 1989 to be undefeated in the "second half" [post-Wimbledon] of the season.
Justine Henin Wallpaper - Justine Henin career record

    Maria, who has not been letting an ongoing right shoulder ailment affect her play this week, is now 16-7 in WTA singles finals, and has a 40-11 match record in 2007. Although her right shoulder has forced her to withdraw from numerous tourneys this year, she won the Tier I San Diego title in August.
Maria Sharapova Wallpaper - Maria Sharapova career record
Madrid player's blog by Jelena Jankovic

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WTA SCOREBOARD: WTA Championships s=seed, #=rank, *=upset, LL=lucky loser ranks are for the week of Nov 6 WTA Championships,  Doha, Qatar   tourney time:        = GMT +4 hours        = US EST +8 hours        = US PST +11 hours Qatar News Weather Forecast | Weather Maps | Weather Radar     WTA Championships: Eight players qualify for the WTA Championships: those who have amassed the most ranking points in the calendar year 2008. They play a 12-match round robin in 2 groups, and the top two players in each group advance to the semifinals.   click for broader view   Khalifa Tennis Complex Latitude: 25.313125 Longitude: 51.51507 goto link for World Wind Doha city map, .pdf - venue area map, .pdf - venue map, .pdf     Centre court at Khalifa Tennis Complex holds 4,106 spectators. For the 15th Asian Games in December 2006, eight new training courts were built. More expansion was planned for the 2008 and 2009 WTA Championships. 2008: Elena Dementieva was interviewed upon arrival at Doha International Airport on Friday, October 31... On Sunday, November 2, #1 Jelena Jankovic arrived at the Pearl Conference Center in Doha for the draw ceremony, then stepped into the lineup with Dinara Safina, Serena Williams, Ana Ivanovic, Elena Dementieva, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Venus Williams, and Vera Zvonareva... row 2: On Monday, Nov 3, Serena, Ana, Vera, Dinara, Elena and Venus played Meet the Press and signed posters at the Ritz Carlton Hotel... 2008: row 3: Elena and Ana played an exhibition on Sunday, November 2, on a desert island court put up for that purpose... On Thursday, November 6, all four doubles teams attended the doubles draw: Liezel Huber & Cara Black, Virginia Ruano Pascual & Anabel Medina Garrigues, Rennae Stubbs & Kveta Peschke, and Katarina Srebotnik & Ai Sugiyama... 2008: row 4: Ai Sugiyama signed autographs on doubles draw day... Ladies looking good at the year-end players party on Saturday, November 8, included Dinara Safina, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Nadia Petrova, Agnieszka Radwanska and Ana Ivanovic, row 5: as well as all four doubles pairs: Liezel Huber & Cara Black, Anabel Medina Garrigues & Virginia Ruano Pascual, Ai Sugiyama & Katarina Srebotnik, and Kveta Peschke & Rennae Stubbs...

Doha WTA Champ's round robin, Tue

Doha WTA Champ's round robin, Wed

Doha WTA Champ's round robin, Thu

Doha WTA Champ's round robin, Fri (2008:) alternates prizes: $50,000 RR no wins prizes: $100,000 US; points: 105 - RR 1 win prizes: $200,000 US; points: 185 RR 2 wins prizes: $300,000 US; points: 265 - RR 3 wins prizes: $400,000 US; points: 345

Doha WTA Championships, SFs, Sat

Doha WTA Championships, Final, Sun loser's prize: RR prize + $315,000 US; points: RR points + 180 (2008) winner's prize: RR prize + $940,000 US; points: RR points + 405 (2008)

Doha WTA Championships, Doubles SFs, Sat loser's prize: $93,750 (2008) Doha WTA Championships, Doubles Final, Sun loser's prize: $187,500 (2008) winner's prize: $375,000 (2008)

See also: QuickShop: Sporting Goods - Martina Hingis - Anna Kournikova

Current WTA Results & Tennis News (tennis home page) - 2009 WTA Schedule with links & photos

Link to many postmatch interview & match highlight videos of WTA players at the 2008 WTA Player Videos page.

WTA PhotoRankings: the current top 20 Women's Tennis rankings with player photos, links, and bio info.