2018 WTA YEC: Svitolina Wins Her Biggest Title, Outlasting Stephens 36 62 62

Elina Svitolina won the biggest title of her career by defeating 2017 US Open champion and 2018 French Open finalist Sloane Stephens 3-6 6-2 6-2 to win the 2018 WTA BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore. Svitolina still has not reached a major final despite being in the Top 10 of the WTA tour for well over a year; her win here leaves her at World #4 for the 2018 season. Both Svitolina and Stephens were undefeated in round robin play to reach the semifinals, with Stephens defeating Karolina Pliskova (despite losing the first set 6-0!) and Svitolina outlasted the surprise semifinalist Kiki Bertens in three sets to reach the most important match of the year.

2018 WTA YEC: Draw Is Set (Halep Withdraws); Osaka, Kerber, Stephens in Same Group

The WTA Year End Championships is starting in Singapore this weekend. Participation is restricted to the Top 8 performers on the WTA tour, which usually (but not always) includes the winners of the 4 Grand Slam tournaments through out the year. This is the last year the

Last year's winner was Caroline Wozniacki who used that momentum to win her first major at this year's Australian Open. This year's French Open winner (and year-end #1) is Simona Halep but she had to withdraw, giving a chance to Kiki Bertens to become the first Dutch player in over two decades to make the Elite Eight. 2018 Wimbledon champion Angie Kerber and 2018 US Open champion Naomi Osaka round out this year's honor roll of major champions. However, there are two other major champions in the draw, Sloane Stephens, 2017 US Open champ, and Petra Kvitova, 2-time Wimbledon champion.

The final 8 are placed into 2 groups of 4 each and then play round-robin tournament to identify the top two in each group, who then play elimination semifinals against members from the other group to reach the final.Last year, Wozniacki defeated Venus Williams.

The two groups are:

• Red Group 

• [1] Angelique Kerber 

• [3] Naomi Osaka 

• [5] Sloane Stephens 

• [8] Kiki Bertens 

• White Group 

• [2] Caroline Wozniacki 

• [4] Petra Kvitova 

• [6] Elina Svitolina 

• [7] Karolina Pliskova

The Red Group in my opinion is the tougher group. Interestingly, Steohens has the head-to-head edge here, while Kvitova has the edge in the White Group (these are problematic names, by the way, why not use names of famous former champions, like the men do?).

I predict that Wozniacki and Kvitova will emerge from the White Group and Stephens and Osaka will emerge from Red Group. Singapore is a relatively slow indoor hard court, which I would give a slight edge to Kvitova overall.

2017 WTA YEC: Venus vs Wozniacki in Final; Halep Ends Year at #1

The WTA Tour Finals are happening in Singapore. The semifinal mtchups were Carolina Garcia versus Venus Williams and Karolina Pliskova versus Caroline Wozniacki. The results were Wozniacki defeated Pliskova, thus ensuring that Simona Halep will end the year as the #1 player. She is the 13th person to earn the coveted end-of-year top ranking.

In the other semifinal, Venus defeated Garcia 6-7(3) 6-2 6-3.

The final match of the year will thus be between  Venus and Caroline. Interestingly, Venus has an undefeated 7-0 head-to-head record against her sister's best friend on tour. Interestingly, Venus has not won a title this year, despite reaching two major finals (Australia Open l. S. Williams and Wimbledon l. G. Muguruza). Wozniack has won one title (Tokyo) so far in 2017 but played in 6 others (Toronto, Bastad, Eastbourne, Miami, Dubai and Doha) where she lost.

In Singapore this week, which is a very slow hard court, Wozniacki has been dominating her opponents, delivering 3 bagel sets and only losing two sets (in a tight match to Garcia after she had already qualified for the semifinals). She is playing well, but I think that Venus has a significant mental edge due to the head-to-head ad the fact that Wozniacki has such a bad record in finals this year. The two are playing for the year-end #3 slot, the loser will end up at #4. However, it is very possible not having a day to rest will sap Venus' energy and she won't be able to use her power to overwhelm the Dane. I think the final will be a very god match, maybe even as good as Garcia-Venus earlier in the week!

MadProfessah's prediction: Venus.

2017 WTA YEC: 7 of 8 Players Can End Year At #1; Muguruza,Pliskova,Wozniacki,Halep Have Wins

The 2017 WTA Tour Year-End Championships, i.e. "the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global" began in Singapore over the weekend. It is a big deal to qualify for this tournament, as only the 8 players with best record for the year are allowed to compete. They are put into two groups and after 3 round-robin matches, the Top 2 players in each group go forward to the semifinals where the winners advance to the last match of the year.

Interestingly, although Halep is the current #1 player in the world, 7 of the 8 players could end up with the #1 ranking since the winner of the tournament gets 1500 points and Halep's lead over Muguruza is a mere 40 points.

This year the two groups are:

WHITE GROUP

• Jelena Ostapenko
• Venus Williams
• Karolina Pliskova
• Garbine Muguruza

RED GROUP

• Simona Halep
• Elina Svitolina 
• Caroline Wozniacki
• Caroline Garcia 

So far one round-robin round has been completed in both groups and Muguruza beat Ostapenko, Pliskova beat Venus in the White group on Sunday and on Monday Halep beat Garcia and  Wozniacki beat Svitolina. 

Play continues tomorrow with White Group competition: Venus versus Ostapenko and Pliskova versus Muguruza.

I really think they should switch the names of the groups to classic champions. Would the "Graf" group versus the "Evert" group be more interesting?

2016 WTA TOUR FINALS: Kerber Beats Radwanska, Cibulkova Outlasts Kuznetsova

The semifinals of the WTA Tour Finals in Singapore took place earlier today and Angelique Kerber defeated defending champion Agnieska Radwanska in straight sets, while Dominika Cibulkova won another epic three-set match, this time against Svetlana Kuznetsova. Kerber beat Radwanska 6-2 6-1 to remain undefeated in the final tournament of the year, winning her 4th match in a row. The clash between Cibulkova and Kuznetsova was much more dramatic, ending in a 1-6 7-6(2) 6-4 scoreline after 2 hours and 27 minutes.

The Cibulkova and Kerber will face off in the WTA Tour Finals Final tomorrow. (Last year it was Radwanska and Petra Kvitova.) Interestingly, due to the unusual round-robin format of the tournament, the two have already played this week, with Kerber coming back to win in 3 sets. (That match featured the best set of tennis I saw all week, which Kerber won in a tiebreak.) The German lefty has now won the last five meetings with Cibulkova and leads their head-to-head 5-4. Kerber is starting to demonstrate why she is the #1 player in the world and the newfound confidence this gives her in big matches makes her a formidable opponent.

MadProfessah's prediction: Kerber.

2016 WTA TOUR FINALS: Kuznetsova Grabs Last Spot In Elite 8, Displacing Konta

Svetlana Kuznetsova upended the script at the WTA Tour Finals in Singapore by waiting until the very last possible moment to quality for the prestigious year-ending championship. Because Serena Williams withdrew, the Top 9 players in the world will be eligible to play. As of this week Johanna Konta of Great Britain was in the #9 position but she could have been surpassed by either Carla Suarez Navarro of Spain or Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia if either won the Moscow Open (Konta didn't play). Kuznetsova was the defending champion in Moscow and despite having numerous tension-filled matches all week, the 2-time major champion was able to win the title and qualify for the year-ending championship for the first time since 2009 (which is when Sveta won her 2nd major at the French Open that year).

The Elite Eight qualifiers are Angelique Kerber (#1), Dominika Cibulkova (#8) Simona Halep (#4) and Madison Keys (#7) in the Red group and Agnieska Radwanska (#3), Garbine Muguruza (#6), Karolina Pliskova (#5) and Svetlana Kuznetsova (#9) in the White group. The draw is made so that the two groups play a round-robin and the top 2 finishers n each group play semifinals against a player from the other group to reach the final. Last year's final four was Maria Sharapova, Muguruza, Radwanska and Petra Kvitova. Kvitova and Radwanska reached the final, which, amazingly, was won by Radwanska. This year Kvitova did not even qualify for the Top 8 and is just outside the Top 10.

Interestingly, despite qualifying late, Kuznetsova has a very good record against the rest of the players in her half of the draw (13-6, mostly because of a 12-4 head-to-head against Radwanska!). Kerber has a 12-9 advantage and Halep has a 10-7 advantage against the rest of the players in the Red group. My prediction would be a Kuznetsova-Kerber semifinal and a Radwanska-Halep semifinal

WTA TOUR FINALS 2015: Sharapova Reaches SF Round In 15 of 16 Scenarios

The second round of the Red Group has been played and Maria Sharapova defeated top seed Simona Halep in straight sets, while Flavia Pennetta handed Aggie Radwanska her second defeat.

This means that it is very likely that Maria Sharapova will reach the semifinal elimination round in almost every scenario. The only way she doesn't make it is if she loses to Pennetta in straight sets and Halep beat Radwanska in straight sets.

WTA FINALS: Red (Halep, Sharapova, Radwanska, Pennetta) White (Muguruza, Kvitova, Kerber, Safarova)

The final tournament of 2015 is happening on the WTA Tour this week, the "BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore Presented by SC Gobal." In one half of the draw lies the two top contenders Maria Sharapova, Simona Halep along with Aggie Radwanska and Flavia Pennetta. In the other half of the draw is Garbine Muguruza and three lefties: Angelique Kerber, Petra Kvitova and Lucie Safarova.

Despite the absence of Serena Williams there should be some compelling matches, but as this infographic demonstrates, the tournament is Sharapova's to lose, or a moment for Halep to step up and prove why she really is the #2 player in the world behind Serena. Sharapova has a combined 19-5 against the members of her group. (Bizarrely, the only player she has a negative record against is Pennetta! But's it only 2-3.)

Matchups I am looking forward to are Kvitova-Safarova, Sharapova-Halep and Kerber-Kvitova.

2014 WTA YEC: Serena Routs Halep To Win 3rd Consecutive YEC; 5th Of Career

Serena Williams got quick revenge for her bad loss earlier in the week to Simona Halep by winning the 2014 WTA Year-Ending Championship final 6-3 6-0. Serena's win means that she has won the year-ending championship three consecutive years and five times in her career (2001 d. Lindsay Davenport (walkover), 2009 d. Venus Williams, 2012 d. Maria Sharapova, 2013 d. Li Na and 2014). She is now tied with Stefi Graf with the number of year-ending championships but is behind Martina Navratilova's eight. She also matches Monica Seles' feat of winning three consecutive year-ending championships. It is Serena's 64th career title.

Serena ends the year 52-8, a surprisingly large number of losses for the World #1, including an improbable 3 losses this year to Alize Cornet, but notably none to World #2 Maria Sharapova (whom she has not lost to in over a decade) or last year's rival Victoria Azarenka.

However, the most important aspect of her tennis year was that she won another major, her 18th at the US Open in September, tying her with Chris Evert and Navratilova. 2015 will be all about breaking that tie and trying to reach Graf's seemingly unsurmountable 22 majors before she retires.

2014 WTA YEC: Serena Clinches #1 When Sharapova Misses Semis

World #1 Serena Williams clinched the year-end top ranking today when World #2 Maria Sharapova failed to win her match against Agnieska Radwanska in straight sets (despite being a set and 5-1 up!) and therefore failed to exit the round-robin of the ETA Tour Finals in Singapore. Williams is the defending champion and although she, Ana Ivanovic and Simona Halep all won 2 matches and lost 1 in their group, only Halep and Williams advanced. In the other group, Caroline Wozniacki is the only undefeated player and despite losing to Sharapova, Radwanska qualified for the semifinals.

The results mean that Serena will play Wozniacki in a reprise of the 2014 US Open final (won by Serena) and Radwanska will play Halep. I suspect we will see a Williams-Halep final, although I would not be surprised to see a Wozniacki-Halep final (or even Wozniacki-Radwanska) instead. Serena having clinched the #1 ranking probably does not care too much about winning her 3rd consecutive year-ending championship. If Serena does make it past Wozniacki (which is more likely than not, then I suspect her match with Halep will be very different from the 0-6 2-6 drubbing she received earlier this week).

The surprise of the tournament was that the power hitters of Petra Kvitova and Sharapova failed to make it through the round robin section to the semifinals..

2014 WTA YEC: SHOCK! Serena Loses 8th Bagel Set Of Career To Halep In 6-0 6-2 Defeat

Well, well, well! The question of how Serena Williams would do at this year's WTA Tour Championships were front and center when she was put in the same round-robin section as the three "It" girls of 2014 (Ana Ivanovic, Simona Halep and Genie Bouchard) was answered on Wednesday. The 18-time major champion won the fewest number of games in a professional match in 16 years, i.e. since she was just starting on the tour. Against Halep, every part of Serena's game was off and she quickly lost the first set 0-6, only the 8th bagel set of her career (managing to win only 7 points). She then lost the second set 6-2, ending her 16 match winning streak at the Year-Ending Championships.

The loss by Serena means that it is very likely that Sharapova could end the year at #1. If Serena fails to make it out of the round-robin group (in order to do so she needs to beat Genie Bouchard in straight sets) then Sharapova will only need to reach the final to become the new #1 ranked player in the world.