2019 WTA YEC: Barty Defeats Svitolina To Win Biggest Paycheck in Tennis

Ash Barty this weekend won the biggest paycheck in women's tennis history when she won US$4.42 million for winning the Shiseido WTA Finals Shenzhen by defeating 2018 WTA Finals champion Elina Svitolina. Barty has had an amazing 2019 tennis season (which technically is over because she is playing in the 2019 Fed Cup final next weekend against France in Perth, Australia). In 2019, after never being ranked higher than #15 in the World or reaching a major semifinal, she won the 2019 Roland Garros title and ascended to World #1, eventually earning the end-of-year #1 ranking for 2019.

At the WTA Finals (which she qualified for the first time this year, becoming one of the very few players to win it in their debut) she was able to come from behind against World #2 Karolina Pliskova in the semifinals to win 4-6 6-2 6-3 (as I predicted). Svitolina  had a  lot more trouble with Belinda Bencic than I expected, with the Swiss player becoming the 4th(!) to withdraw from the tournament, following the heels of Naomi Osaka, Bianca Andreescu and  Kiki Bertens. Bencic won the first set 7-5 against Svitolina but then had an injury in the second set, lost that 6-3 and finally withdrew from the match and tournament trailing 1-4 in the third.

I suspect Barty's year will come to a perfect end when she powers Australia past France in the Fed Cup.

2019 WTA YEC: Barty versus Pliskova, Svitolina versus Bencic

The semifinals of the WTA Year-End Championships, now called the Shiseido WTA Finals Shenzhen, are set for Saturday. They feature World #1 Ash Barty versus current World #2 Karolina Pliskova and 2018 defending champion Elina Svitolina versus Belina Bencic. Svitolina is now 8-0 in the last two year-end championships; she has never lost in the tournament so far and she is the first player to reach the semifinal stage without dropping a set since Serena Williams achieved that feat in 2014. Svitolina has beaten Simona Halep, Karolina Pliskova and (2nd Alternate) Sofia Kenin all in straight sets to reach the knockout stage.

Barty leads Pliskova 3-2 and Bencic leads Svitolina 2-1 in the head-to-head matchups.

MadProfessah's predictions: Svitolina defeats Bencic (in 3) and Barty beats Pliskova (in 2).

TENNIS TUESDAY: Murray Wins 1st Title With Metal Hip; WTA Elite 8 Set; Shapo Wins First Title

ANDY MURRAY DEFEATS STAN WAWRINKA IN BATTLE OF COMEBACK KIDS
Former World #1 and 3-time major champion Andy Murray defeated 3-time major champion Stan Wawrinka 3-6 6-4 6-4 to win his first title since March of 2017. The tournament win is notable because both Murray and Wawrinka had extended departures from the tour due to injury, with Murray having a "hip resurfacing surgery" in January of this year which most people expected to completely end his competitive tennis career.

BENCIC GRABS LAST SLOT IN WTA TOUR FINAL BY WINNING KREMLIN CUP
Belinda Bencic continued her excellent 2019 season by grabbing the final slot in the Elite 8 season-ending WTA Tour Finals by winning the Kremlin Cup title over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. Bencic only needed to reach the final to claim the berth but came back from a set to win her 4th career title.

SHAPOVALOV REACHES FIRST ATP TOUR FINAL IN 8 TRIES AND  WINS IT!
Denis Shapovalov of Canada had lost his first 7 ATP tour semifinals but at the Stockholm Open he reached the final and surprisingly won it with a 6-4 6-4 victory over Yuichi Sugita. The 20-year-old Canadian rejoins the Top 30 and gets bragging rights over his 19-year-old countryman Felix Auger-Aliassime who is higher ranked on the tour but has yet to win an ATP tour title despite reaching 2 finals this year.

ELITE EIGHT OF WTA TOUR FINAL SET (SERENA DOESN'T QUALIFY)

The competitors in the WTA Tour Finals (now called the Shiseido WTA Finals Shenzen) are set: Ash Barty, Karolina Pliskova, Naomi Osaka, Simona Halep, Bianca Andreescu, Petra Kvitova Belinda Bencic and Elina Svitolina.

TENNIS TUESDAY: 2018 Season Ends With Djokovic and Halep On Top

TENNIS SEASON ENDS WITH SIMONA HALEP AND NOVAK DJOKOVIC ON TOP
The 2018 tennis season is now over since the 2018 ATP Tour finals concluded on Sunday with Sascha Zverev's improbable win over Novak Djokovic in the final. For the record, Djokovic ended the year at #1 on the ATP Tour and Simona Halep ended the WTA tour at #1.

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?

TENNIS TUESDAY: Murray Gunning For ATP #1; Kerber Ends Year As WTA #1; Domi Dazzles

DOMI CIBULKOVA RELISHES HER WTA TOUR FINALS WIN
Dominka Cibulkova won the biggest title of her career by blowing out World #1 Angie Kerber in straight sets in the finals of the WTA Tour Finals in Singapore. The result brought her to a career-high ranking of World #5, which was a significant increase from her start at the beginning of the year at #38. The 6-3 6-4 win brought her more prize money in one match than she had won for the rest of the  year. And she looked fabulous afterwards!

ANDY MURRAY KEEPS RACE FOR #1 ALIVE WITH VIENNA TITLE WIN
Andy Murray now has a plausible way of finally reaching the World #1 ranking before the end of the year. Because current World #1 Novak Djokovic has not had his typically excellent fall tennis season while Murray is currently on a 14-match winning streak, and has reached 10 finals in the last 11 matches. If Murray wnis the Paris Masters this week and Djokovic fails to get to the final then Murray will have more ranking points as the ATP World Tour finals begin on November 13.

ANGIE KERBER ENDS 2016 AS SINGLES #1; MIRZA ENDS YEAR AS DOUBLES #1
After Serena Williams decided not to compete in the WTA Tour Finals, Angelique Kerber was essentially ceded the year-end #1 ranking. The #1 doubles ranking for 2016 ended up going to Sania Mirza who earned it despite not defending her 2015 WTA Finals doubles title with Martina Hingis. If American Bethanie Mattek-Sands could have reached #1 if she and Lucie Safarova  had not lost the final agaist the Elenas (Makarova and Vesnina) who added to the 2016 Olympic Gold Medal with the 2016 WTA Tour final title.

RAFA NADAL CUT CORD ON 2016 SEASON AND OPENS UP HIS TENNIS ACADEMY
Rafael Nadal announced on October 20th that he would not play again this year. The 30-year-old, 14-time major champion had a 39-14 record in 2016 and won two titles. Rafa opened his official tennis academy in his hometown of Manacor, Mallorca the day before. Roger Federer, his great rival, who cut the cord on his 2016 season in July, was also present at the grand opening of the Rafa Nadal Academy by Movistar.

2016 WTA TOUR FINALS: Cibulkova Shocks Kerber To Win Biggest Career Title

Defying the odds and most predictions, Dominika Cibulkova defeated World #1 Angelique Kerberb 6-3 6-4 playing fierce, high-quality tennis to win the WTA Tour finals, the biggest title title of her career (and over $2 million in prize money). The surprising result means that Cibulkova will end the year ranked World #5, her highest ranking ever. (She started the year ranked #38.)

Cibulkova became the second player (after last year's winner Agnieska Radwanska) to lose two matches en route to winning the title. The WTA Tour finals is only open to the Top 8 players of the year and thus employs a round-robin format (instead of the typical win-or-go-home rules). Cibulkova lost an epic 3-setter to Kerber in her first match, and then lost again in straight sets to Madison Keys. She had to win in straight sets against Simona Halep and hope that Kerber did not drop a set against Keys. Kerber obliged her (and won her first four matches), thus allowing Cibulkova to sneak into the semifinals. There Cibulkova played another intense 3-set match against Svetlana Kuznetsova, coming back from a set down and a break down in the final set to reach the biggest final since reaching the 2014 Australian Open final.

Cibulkova simply played her best tennis when it counted the most. She served at 84% and won 70% of her second serve points. She had twice as many winers as errors (28 to 14) and just kept on going for her strokes, outlasting Kerber's impeccable defense. Kerber didn't help her cause by not serving well (6 doublefaults) but in the end Cibulkova went out and won this match.

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: Kerber, Kuznetsova, Pliskova Win 3-Set Thrillers; Halep Rolls Over Keys

The WTA Tour finals in Singapore have kicked off with a bang, with three of the four completed matches in the first two days absolutely thrilling 3-set slugfests. First came the encounter between Angie Kerber and Dominka Cibulkova. The two played an absolutely epic, hour=long first set, which was won by Kerber on her one and only set point at 6-5 in tiebreaker after both players had won and lost momentum in the games played earlier, Cibulkova responded by continuing to crush the ball into the corners and won the second set 6-2 but then lost the decider 6-3. The match was nearly 3 hours long with final score 7-6(5) 2-6 6-3. This was in sharp contrast to yet another meeting between Madison Keys and Simona Halep, where again, Halep was too steady for the young American power player, and improves her head-to-head to 5-1.

On Monday, the matches got even better with both eventual winners having to save a match point on their way to victory. First Sveta Kuznetsova came back from a 1-4 deficit in the first set to squeeze out the first set 7-5 but Radwanska roared back with a 6-1 beat down. As Ian DW noted on twitter: Radwanska had won 21 of 22 matches when she won one of the sets 6-1. The only loss was to Kuznetsova (who had won 8 of their 9 previous encounters). Kuznetsova went down an early break 0-2 in the third set and eventually Radwanska served for the match at 5-4 (after losing and regaining the break) but was broken again to even the 3rd set at 5-all. Kuznetsova held  to go up 6-5 and this time when Radwanska was serving to stay in the match, she saved 2 match points (1 with an ace!) but still succumbed, losing 7-5, 6-1, 7-5. Probably the match of the year (although Cibulkova-Radwanska at Wimbledon 2016 was pretty amazing as well.)

But wait, there's more! Garbine Muguruza and Karolina Pliskova had an even more compelling match (although probably not as entertaining or high-quality) as Kuznetsova-Radwanska. Pliskova easily won the first set 6-2 and was up 3-1 in the second when the wheels came off and Muguriza fought back went up a break and served for the set at 5-3 but eventually won the second set in a 7-4 tiebreak. In the third set Muguruza extended her momentum and quickly went up 4-0 and 5-2 (double break). Amazingly Pliskova never gave up, broke back (saving a match poiint in the process), and then held her serve and when Muguruza served for the match a second time at 5-4 Pliskova broke at love to even the match at 5-all and again easily held her serve to go ahead 6-5. But then Muguruza lost her serve and the match when she was serving a must-hold 12th games, and lost 6-2 6-7(4) 7-5.

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

TENNIS TUESDAY: Serena Ends 2016 Season; Murray Closing In On #1; Cibulkova,Keys Qualify For WTA YEC, Kyrgios Sanctioned

SERENA PULLS THE PLUG ON 2016 SEASON
For the second consecutive year, World #2 Serena Williams ended her annual tennis season without hitting a ball after falling in the semifinals of the U.S. Open, the last major of the year. WTA released figures today which indicate how much Serena is concentrating on the majors as she gets older:

2013: 82 matches, 78-4 record, won 11 titles.2014: 60 matches, 52-8 record, won 7 titles.2015: 56 matches, 53-3 record, won 5 titles.2016: 44 matches, 38-6 record, won 2 titles.

What's amazing is that since she played so few matches in 2016, Serena should not have much trouble reclaiming the #1 ranking in 2017, a year in which I am convinced that she will win her 23rd major title, cementing her status as the greatest player of all time.

ANDY MURRAY WINS SHANGHAI MASTERS, SHRINKS GAP TO #1 RANKING
After World #1 Novak Djokovic self-destructed in his semifinal at the 2016 Shanghai Masters against Roberto Bautista Agut, losing his first match in China in nearly three years, World #2 Andy Murray seized the opportunity to win another Masters Shield, the 13th of his career, his 41st ATP tour title and 6th of 2016. Although Murray is now merely 915 points behind Djokovic for the race to #1 for the calendar year, he is still 2415 points behind the World #1 but intends to play 3 more tournaments this year. It's unclear how many tournaments Djokovic will play this year, but there are two big ones remaining: 2016 Paris Masters and the 2016 Barclays ATP World Tour Finals.

KYRGIOS RECEIVES SIGNIFICANT PUNISHMENT FOR TANKING IN SHANGHAI
Australian phenom Nick Kyrgios received an unprecedented 8 week-long ban from the tour (until January 15, 2017) today from the ATP in response to an execrable performance in the 2nd round of the Shanghai Masters against Mischa Zverev. They also gave the Australian an option to reduce the ban to just 3 weeks if he agrees to see a Psychologist, which he agreed to do. This means that Kyrgios will just be banned for the rest of the 2016 season, but his 2017 season will be unaffected.

THE WTA YEAR-END CHAMPIONSHIP FEATURES SEVERAL NEWBIES: PLISKOVA, KEYS, CIBULKOVA
The WTA year-end championship in Singapore is the most prestigious tournament of the year (apart from the Grand Slams). Last year the tournament was won by Agnieska Radwanska. This year there are several first-time qualifiers: 2016 US Open finalist Karolina Pliskova, 2014 Australian Open finalist Dominika Cibulkova and American phenom Madison Keys. With Serena's withdrawal, #9 Johanna Konta shuld get the 8th slot, but she withdrew from playing this week due to an injury, so if either Svetlana Kuznetsova and Carla Suarez Navarro are able to win the title in Moscow this week, they would get the final slot.

WTA TOUR FINALS 2015: Kvitova and Radwanska Reach Improbable Final

Much to my surprise, the two winners of the semifinals of the WTA Tour Finals in Singapore were not the two players in 3 round-robin matches, Maria Sharapova and Garbiñe Muguruza  but their 1-2 opponents, Petra Kvitova and Aggie Radwanska! These were quite surprising results, because Radwanska outlasted her opponent in a 2.5 hour marathon, getting her first win in 6 matches she played against Muguruza this year. In the other match, P3tra did not live up to her name, coming back from 1-5 down in the second set (after winning the first one) to force a tiebreaker, which she won, overcoming a 3-6 head-to-head deficit with the 4-time major champion. Muguruza apparently just ran out of gas against Radwanska, but, then amazingly was able to get to the Doubles final with her partner Carla Suarez Navarro. It's incredible that the 20-year-old was able to qualify in both singles and doubles (so did Lucie Safarova) but that she made the semifinals in both is quite a feat.
That being said, the Spaniards have almost no chance in winning the title against the best doubles team in the world, Martina Hingis  and Sania Mirza.

Kvitova won this title along with her first major in 2011 while Radwanska has never won one of the five biggest titles in tennis. Kvitova has a significant 6-2 head-to-head advantage over Radwanska, but those two losses have both come at this tournament, the last one coming last year on the very same court!

I like both players so I will be happy with whatever the result is. I do think that the "better" player is Kvitova, and that she deserves the title more, but my game and my heart are leaning towards Radwanska, because I would like to see her perhaps repeat Amelie Mauresmo's history and become the second player to win the WTA year-ending championship without having won a slam and then go on to win a slam the very next year.

It's not that often that I miss calling the results of both semifinals in a big tournament (although the 2015 U.S. Open is a painful recent reminder that it can and does happen!) but that doesnt stop me from making a prediction in the final.

MadProfessah's pick: Kvitova.

WTA TOUR FINALS 2015: Sharapova, Muguruza Undefeated; Kvitova, Radwanska Also Qualify

The Round Robin portion of the 2015 WTA Tour Finals in Singapore is complete and in her first appearance 2015 Wimbledon finalist Garbine Muguruza has gone undefeated, beating the three lefties in her group to reach the semifinals. By qualifying at the top of her group she will meet the second qualifier in the other group. In that group (as I expected) Maria Sharapova parlayed her strong head-to-head record against the rest of the field to go undefeated while somehow top seed Simona Halep failed to qualify when ninja Aggie Radwanska beat her without losing a set, thus insuring that all 3 players not named Sharapova would end with 1 win and 2 losses. But since Radwanska had won a set against Sharapova in her very first match, she advanced and Halep and Flavia Pennetta did not. Pennetta's career is now over but 2015 was by far her very best year on tour, which is an amazing way to go out on top!

There was still drama because after Muguruz outlasted Petra Kvitova 6-4 4-6 7-5 in their first ever meeting all Angelique Kerber had to do was win a set and she would qualify instead of the 2-time Wimbledon champ. But somehow Lucie Safarova was able to take out the indomitable German in straight sets, thus handing her Czech compatriot the second semifinalist spot.

These results mean that Kvitova will face Sharapova and Muguruza will face Radwanska. The latter met in a crucial Wimbledon semifinal earlier this year, which was won by Muguruza as she got up to a big lead (up a set and a break) which she then lost but was able to recover and win her first major semifinal and the right to face Serena Williams. Muguruza has now won the last 4 meetings with the Polish "ninja" (all of which came in 2015). Can Aggie get revenge? (I doubt it.)

The more compelling match is the showdown between Sharapova and Kvitova. P3tra beat Maria in straight sets at the 2014 WTA Tour Finals in the round robin stage the last time the two played but then neither player advanced to the semifinal stage last year. The Russian holds a 6-3 head-to-head lead against Kvitova, I think mostly for mental toughness. Kvitova is not playing her best tennis but maybe getting to the semifinal will relax her and she will hit freely (and not wildly). It's possible that Kvitova could dominate Sharapova or Kvitiva could be wild and flame out in straight sets, or we could have a nailbiting, 3-set thriller between two of the hardest hitters on tour. I hope its the latter, but I still give Sharapova the edge.

MadProfessah's pick: Sharapova-Muguruza final.

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.