The WTA Finals, as it’s termed now, featured world No. 1 Serena Williams against the top Romanian, No. 4 seed Simona Halep. This was the first time Simona Halep made the trip to the year-end championship, whereas Serena was looking for her third WTA Finals title in a row.
Williams needed just 1 hour and 9 minutes to defeat Halep with a score of 6-3, 6-0. The match was close early in the first set but at 3-3 Serena took the next nine games to close it in a hurry.
The inaugural event in Singapore, where the year-end championship dubbed WTA Finals was held this year and shall be for next four years, was more than just the competition between the top eight ladies in tennis; this was a spectacle of show, passion, mishaps, missed opportunities, triumph, and of course defeat. It was obvious from the beginning this will be a championship like none before since it all started at a packed 21st Century resort’s shopping center.
In addition to the regular competition, this year the WTA added mini-events titled “Rising Stars” and “Future Stars”, as well as legends matches, stretching the show to 10 days.
Round Robin competition brought many surprises. Both top seeds suffered losses and only one made the semifinals. At the end, No. 4 seed, Simona Halep, and No. 8 seed, Caroline Wozniacki, led their respective groups.
Although routed in straight sets by Simona Halep in the Round Robin stage in one of the worst defeats of her career, Serena Williams returned the favor by only allowing three games in the final match, and none in the second set.
Williams will retain her No. 1 ranking for the remainder of the year and beyond. Halep improved to No. 3.
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Cover Photo (Creative Commons License): VOXSPORTSdotNET
The WTA Finals are set to played in Singapore from October 25th to November 1st. The tournament has gone through many different names, formats and venues, but it has consistently crowned a year-end champion every year since 1972 (twice in 1986!). While most of the winners are the well-known greats, there have been some surprises here and there. See how many of the 44 champions you can name in five minutes!
