This week the top ladies compete in the Sony Ericsson year end Championship in Doha, Qatar. The top eight players in the world participate to see who will be crowned champion for the season. The players who qualified are Serena Williams, Dinara Safina, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Caroline Wozniacki, Elena Dementieva, Victoria Azarenka, Venus Williams, and Jelena Jankovic, who just edged out Vera Zvonareva.
Some of these names are the ones you would expect but others are new to the scene. Serena and Venus Williams are the expected U.S. contenders. They have been ranked in the top 10 for eight of the last ten years on tour. Many of the other names may or may not be familiar to you but most of us have difficulty with their pronunciation either way - Kuznetsova, Dementieva, Safina, Zvonareva. All of these players are from Russia. Rounding out the rest of the players are Wozniacki from Denmark, Azarenka from Belarus, and Jankovic from Serbia.
During the year the players who made the biggest news were Serena Williams, who won two major titles, the Australian Open and Wimbledon. Safina was runner up in the Australian open and the French Open and held the number one ranking for the majority of the year. Kuznetsova was the winner of the French Open, Venus Williams was the runner-up at Wimbledon, and Wozniaki was the runner-up at the U.S. Open. The stage is now set for the season ending championships that commence almost a month earlier than the men's season ending championship held in London, England.
Who will win the title? Will the victory help launch them into 2010 with a great confidence boost? The end of year tournament can be very unpredictable for many reasons. Many times the top players go into the tournament fatigued due to a long season, or they may be satisfied with what they have already accomplished, or they focus on winning major titles and may not put as much weight on winning the season ending title. Usually the players who have the most to gain are the youthful and less experienced which puts Wozniacki, Azarenka, and Zvonareva in a good position to do well. They will likely be excited to be there and want to put in a strong performance to validate their selection.
Players to watch for the 2010 season (which starts right after the first of the year)...
Beyond Wozniacki, Azarenka and Zvonareva, other young players to watch are Agnieszka Radwanska (Poland), Yanina Wickmayer (Belgium), and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova (Russia). There will also be a continued resurgence from Kim Clijsters, who already won this year's U.S. Open, Ana Ivanovic should have a more consistent year and get back on track to her previous achievements, and lastly Maria Sharapova will have a better year now that her shoulder has regained the strength required to participate for a full competitive schedule. Another player who will be added to the mix is Justine Henin, the former number one player who retired from the game ranked number one in the world less than 18 months ago. The question is will she be the player she once was or is this an attempt to divert attention away from her number one rival Kim Clijsters, who won the U.S. Open in her third tournament back on tour? Only time will tell, but all this will make the season interesting and one to follow.
Thanks again for all your continued support.
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Matt Copland
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