WTA Year-End Championships Shaping Up

Well, unless something drastic changes over the course of the next couple of weeks, the season ending championship line-up is virtually official:
1 HENIN, JUSTINE*
2 JANKOVIC, JELENA*
3 KUZNETSOVA, SVETLANA*
4 IVANOVIC, ANA*
5 WILLIAMS, SERENA*
6 CHAKVETADZE, ANNA
7 WILLIAMS, VENUS USA
8 SHARAPOVA, MARIA RUS
*Officially Qualified

Obviously the pools have not been determined yet, but what are the general predictions? My thoughts...

Serious Contender(s): Justine Henin, Serena Williams, Venus Williams
Moderate Contender(s): Jelena Jankovic
Distant Contender(s): Svetlana Kuznetsova
Non-Contender(s): Ana Ivanovic, Anna Chekvetadze, Maria Sharapova

Allow me to justify my thought process: Justine, Serena, and Venus are simply always going to be favoured to win an event when they're playing their best. Although Serena is not currently "in-form", she will likely have enough time to rest so she'll be ready. Either that or she'll default from the tournament altogether. But I think she's more likely to play and succeed.

Jelena Jankovic is on the verge of a breakthrough, but may not be ready to open the door of opportunity just yet. However, it is possible that she may gain the confidence needed from this event to propel her grand slam career in a winning direction, much like it did in the past for Mauresmo.

Svetlana is considered a distant contender because she is simply too inconsistent for her game to hold up in a round robin format against such a deep field.

Finally: Ivanovic, Chekvetadze and Sharapova are all riding rocky Octobers. I'm really wondering, much like Serena, if Slumpapova will even show up for the year-ending event? In my mind, the only reason she will attend the event is to prevent the loss of ranking points that are rapidly escaping her. If she does play, she is vulnerable to having her confidence squashed by the opposition.

Thoughts?
 
Hmm let me break it down:

Serious Contender(s): Justine Henin
Moderate Contender(s): nobody
Distant Contender(s): nobody
Non-Contender(s): Svetlana Kuznetsova, Venus Williams, Serena Williams, Jelena Jankovic, Ana Ivanovic, Anna Chekvetadze, Maria Sharapova

This is Justine's tournament. Since she has entered there is no reason she wont choose to win the event.
 

Benjamin007

Banned
IMO Justine will gonna win. She really in-form, consistent and too strong and confidence right now. Hard to beat by others. Looked at the contender names:

2 JANKOVIC, JELENA
3 KUZNETSOVA, SVETLANA
4 IVANOVIC, ANA
5 WILLIAMS, SERENA
6 CHAKVETADZE, ANNA
7 WILLIAMS, VENUS
8 SHARAPOVA, MARIA

None of above names had defeated her this year................
 
the williams have a chance of winning when in-form. Venus is 7-2 vs. Henin.

All 7 of Venus's wins were January 2003 and before when Venus was at her peak and when Justine was still a 0-time Slam Champion. Venus is just lucky she took over 4 years to play Justine again, so she is able have a misleading joke of a head to head, but one who follows tennis seriously should know better.
 

5ean

New User
I would never rule out Ivanovic.

She learns from her mistakes. She admits she was looking to far ahead in Zurich and loosing to Golovin at the moment is not shameful by any means.

Perhaps Bondarenko in Stuttgart was a bad match for her, but she slaughtered Schynder the round before.

And she has an brilliant record against top 10 players.

Serena is not in form and Venus is reduced to playing tier III. And in the French Open final she got nervous against Henin.

I think if her game is on she is a serious threat to anybody! But she is inconsistant
 

anointedone

Banned
Doesn't matter who wins this one. Justine finishes the year as #1 regardless.

Sure, but she would still like to defend her title. This is a pretty big event, the biggest outside the slams. It is the kind of event people will look at your success when your career is over.
 
Official Player List

1 HENIN, JUSTINE BEL
2 JANKOVIC, JELENA SRB
3 KUZNETSOVA, SVETLANA RUS
4 IVANOVIC, ANA SRB
5 WILLIAMS, SERENA USA
6 CHAKVETADZE, ANNA RUS
8 HANTUCHOVA, DANIELA SVK
8 SHARAPOVA, MARIA RUS

Personally, I can't believe Maria doubla-faulta-pova is going to compete in this event. It is making me think that maybe she'll completely surprise me and pull off some of her best tennis. Is she capable, though, of not playing a whole lot and coming back with victory (much like the Williams sisters)?
 
I bet some of these ladies are shaking in their shoes having to face Sharapova :roll: , but I have no idea of what she will bring to the table in Madrid. All eyes for me is going to be on Henin, Serena, Jankovic and hopefully Kuznetsova.
 
Top