WTA Tour Championships Approaches

So far, Lindsay Davenport, Maria Sharapova, Kim Clijsters and Mary Pierce have qualified for the season-ending Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Championships in Los Angeles November 8-13. Amèlie Mauresmo and Justine Henin-Hardenne are very likely to qualify so really Venus Williams, Elena Dementieva and Nadia Petrova are "fighting" for the final spot. Although as one commentator puts it, "I'm not sure one could call what Venus is doing 'fighting' since she's only playing in one tournament (Philadelphia) between now and the WTA Championships." Patty Schnyder is playing in the Zurich final against Davenport this week and is scheduled to play both Linz and Philadelphia. Schnyderhas probably wrapped up the seventh spot. Petrova lost in the finals of Thailand a few weeks ago and is scheduled to play Philadelphia also. Dementieva is not scheduled to play either Linz or Philadelphia. The question is, how seriously does Venus want to play in Los Angeles? It's the biggest pay check of the year (usually) but the tournament also has a lot of ranking points associated with it to start 2006 on the right foot.