Venus and Serena Both Qualify for Year End Championships

Savannah over at Savannah's World has the details of the final 8 qualifiers for the lucrative and prestigious Year End Championships in Madrid which start November 6.

Updated Race List: 10/28/2007

1 HENIN, JUSTINE BEL 4975.00
2 JANKOVIC, JELENA SRB 4096.00
3 KUZNETSOVA, SVETLANA RUS 3581.00
4 IVANOVIC, ANA SRB 3162.00
5 WILLIAMS, SERENA USA 2767.00
6 CHAKVETADZE, ANNA RUS 2628.00
--WILLIAMS, VENUS USA 2470.00 (Withdrawn!)
7 HANTUCHOVA, DANIELA SVK 2431.00
8 SHARAPOVA, MARIA RUS 2431.00
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9 BARTOLI, MARION FRA 2224.00
10 DEMENTIEVA, ELENA RUS 2023.00
11 VAIDISOVA, NICOLE CZE 1886.00 (Quebec R1 +1) 140=2026

Both Venus and Serena Williams made the "Elite Eight" who qualified for the Year End Championship despite their erratic playing schedule in 2007. After all, they each did win a Grand Slam tournament this year (although Justine Henin won the other two).

With Daniela Hantuchova winning her first WTA tour title apart from Indian Wells (2002 and 2007) at Linz today, she was able to tie Maria Sharapova for the 8th spot, so only one of them would have made it, and according to the rules, Hantuchova would have been chosen for the spot because she played more tournaments (26) than Sharapova (12).

However, Venus released a statement withdrawing from the Madrid tournament:

"This year has been a great one for many reasons," said the Wimbledon
winner. "I am pleased that I finished the year in the top eight and in recent
weeks I have remained optimistic about participating in the season-ending Sony
Ericsson Championships. Nevertheless, the accumulation of matches has taken its
toll and I have received several medical opinions to delay my return to
competitive tennis. As a result, I will miss the Sony Ericsson Championships. I
look forward to playing in the New Year for what will hopefully be an even
better 2008."

Though it's not clear that Sharapova will use her spot, since she has withdrawn from the last two tournaments she has entered, which would put Wimbledon finalist Marion Bartoli back in the mix. She looked injured during her loss to Patty Schnyder in the Linz semifinals yesterday so perhaps Nicole Vaidisova can sneak in to the Elite Eight. Stay tuned!