WTA Tournament of Champions

WTA Tournament of Champions was a women's season ending tennis tournament for players who have won one or more of the WTA International tournaments during the year but did not qualify for the WTA Championships.

WTA Tournament of Champions
Tournament information
Founded2009
Abolished2014
LocationSofia
Bulgaria
VenueArmeets Arena
CategoryInternational
SurfaceHard / Indoors
Draw8S
Prize moneyUS$750,000
Websitesofia-tennis.bg

History

It debuted in 2009 at the Bali International Convention Centre on November 4–8 and was a part of the 2009 WTA Tour. The first edition of the tournament featured a 12-woman round robin singles format (four groups of three players, then single-elimination semifinals and final), and offered both US$600,000, €500,000 in prize money and a chance to earn a €1-million bonus for qualified players who won three or more international tournaments. For its second edition, the tournament featured an eight-woman draw with players having only one opportunity to reach the semifinals, where the remaining four women would compete for the first, second, third, and fourth place prizes. The event replaced the Commonwealth Bank Tennis Classic in Bali (a former Tier III tournament).

For the 2009 edition, the 10 highest-ranked players who had captured at least one international tournament during the year and who were not participating in singles at the year-end WTA Tour Championships – Doha 2009 qualified for the event, along with two wildcards. For the 2010 edition, only the top 8 ranked women qualified for the event, with the tournament having the possibility to replace competitors with wildcards of their choice.

The WTA Tournament of Champions took place in Bali from the inaugural edition in 2009 until 2011. Since 2012 the tournament was held in Sofia, Bulgaria.

From 2015, the WTA Tournament of Champions was replaced by a new format: the WTA Elite Trophy. The singles competition will feature a four-group round robin format consisting of players ranked from 9th to 19th in the world plus one wildcard; followed by the semifinals and final. The tournament will also include a doubles tournament featuring six teams split into two groups followed by a final.[1]

Venues
Town Years Stadium Surface Capacity
Nusa Dua, Bali 2009–2011 Bali International Convention Centre Hard (i) 8,000
Sofia 2012–2014 Armeets Arena Hard (i) 13,545

Past results

Singles
Venue Year Champion Runner-up Score
Bali 2009 Aravane Rezaï Marion Bartoli 7–5, retired
2010 Ana Ivanovic Alisa Kleybanova 6–2, 7–6(7–5)
2011 Ana Ivanovic (2) Anabel Medina Garrigues 6–3, 6–0
Sofia 2012 Nadia Petrova Caroline Wozniacki 6–2, 6–1
2013 Simona Halep Samantha Stosur 2–6, 6–2, 6–2
2014 Andrea Petkovic Flavia Pennetta 1–6, 6–4, 6–3
gollark: Which I guess could have been used for Orion drives, but still.
gollark: Nuclear weapons, for instance, required a bunch of specialised R&D which was basically only useful for making nuclear weapons.
gollark: And have fewer spinoffs.
gollark: Some technologies lead more easily to harm than others.
gollark: That sounds like another thing which is bound to have no negative consequences.

References
  1. http://www.wtatennis.com/news/article/4202219/title/wta-elite-trophy-to-debut-in-zhuhai
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.