Prize money for the final WTA tournament. WTA Finals - Shenzhen Doubles online, results, draws

For the third year in a row, hospitable Singapore is hosting the world's strongest tennis players, who will compete for victory in one of the most prestigious tournaments in world tennis. The final tournament of the year always has its own amazing atmosphere, because there are no random participants or random winners. And sincere and always active fans in Singapore turned the WTA Final Championship into a real holiday. Throughout the season, the strongest female tennis players in the world showered compliments on this competition. And now, with only the top eight remaining, there is hope that the tournament will once again be exciting.

Although the phrase “all the strongest” regarding the WTA Final Tournament for the second year in a row is not entirely appropriate. Serena Williams again misses the tournament, which she won five times, and once in Singapore itself. After her triumph at Wimbledon, the American has noticeably improved and, apparently, is resting before the new spurt in 2017. When Williams Jr. is out of shape, her performances on the court turn into stage drama with a lot of effects and a minimum of tennis. Therefore, her loss in her current state is unlikely to be seriously noticeable.

Red group

This group was led by world number one Angelique Kerber, and she was accompanied by Romanian Simona Halep, American Madison Keys and Slovakian Dominika Cibulkova. In fact, the group composition is very even, which guarantees many interesting fights. Just look at the personal meetings of the participants. Angelique Kerber, who by status should be the favorite of the group, has a positive “personal relationship” only with Madison Keys. On the other hand, Halep is leading in a personal confrontation with Keys and Kerber, but is inferior to Cibulkova. And Dominica herself lost all three matches to Madison. So there can be many stories.

If the tournament were held in September or August, then this group could be called the Angelique Kerber group. But now Halep looks like her favorite. Simone had a good, stable season, without the long-awaited breakthrough at the Grand Slam tournament. But there were also no huge failures throughout the season, with the exception of its start. To Beijing Simone simply arrived as a player who qualified for the Final Tournament of the Year. Halep already had a final in Singapore, and this year she has a great chance to at least repeat this result.

Of course, Kerber is having an amazing season, where she scored victories in the “majors” in USA and Australia , finals at Wimbledon and the Olympics and incredible consistency throughout almost the entire season. However, after a hard-won victory in New York, Angelique's batteries ran out. She talks more and more often about rest, and the 28-year-old tennis player now has much less motivation. As she herself said, she there's nothing left to prove. And the Final Tournament was never particularly successful for Kerber.

Desire is what Angelique lacks right now. In a game with Cibulkova, this will be especially significant, since these are two tennis players of the same type. Dominica, who started the season outside the Top 50, had a great campaign in 2016. She had to make her way through difficult brackets and lost a lot of points because of this, but at the end of the season she had successful tournaments in Wuhan and Linz brought the Slovakian a well-deserved reward - a trip to Singapore. Dominica may have little experience at this level, but Cibulkova’s fighting qualities are known throughout the Tour.

As for Madison Keys, she remains a mystery and the dark horse of the group. Despite the fact that Madison's tennis is the exact opposite of the term "consistency", her results this year have been very even. Throughout 2016, Madison only exited the tournament before the third round three times. And this is the decisive factor that helped the American woman end up in Singapore. But in Linz, where this trip was guaranteed, Keys played with a cold. Add to this the flight, lack of experience and you get an outsider of the group. Madison will have a great experience getting to know the rhythm of the game at the Finals. She can relax and feel like she is on an excursion because there is no pressure. This is a tiny, but still a chance for Madison.

Expected results: 1. Halep 3:0; 2.Tsibulkova 2:1; 3. Kerber 1:2 4. Keys 0:3

White group

The White group has a little more experience, more joint victories at big tournaments, but here the situation is very interesting. For example, Karolina Pliskova is leading in personal meetings with Svetlana Kuznetsova and Garbine Muguruza. At the same time, it is shamelessly inferior to Agnieszka Radwańska - 0:6. In turn, Agnieszka is minimally inferior to Muguruza, but Sveta is a Polish woman’s nightmare - 4:12. In addition, the shape of the participants also varies greatly.

U Agnieszka has a good chance of defending her title, especially considering the momentum of the Polish tennis player's season. After all, it was in the fall that she won one of the biggest tournaments in her career in Beijing. Another thing is that Radwanska last beat a Top 10 player back in March. An additional difficulty for the third racket of the world is that she starts the tournament with a match against the awkward Svetlana Kuznetsova, who has gained a good momentum.

Kuznetsova jumped on the bandwagon of the departing train, entering the “VTB Kremlin Cup” tournament “on the flag”, and then winning in magnificent style title on it . After the US Open, Svetlana played much more lively, winning several quality victories. Among them, Agnieszka, Venus, Svitolina were beaten, and all the losses were in equal matches. Svetlana had an interesting series at big competitions, when she lost only to the winners. It all started with Rome and the loss to Serena, and ended at the US Open, when Kuznetsova lost to Wozniacki in the second round. Caroline eventually made it to the semi-finals. This once again shows how underrated Svetlana's season is. If she still has the strength for this tournament, then it is quite possible to repeat Agnieszka’s feat. A lot depends on the first match.

Garbine Muguruza won three or more matches in WTA competition three times throughout the 2016 season. However, she only once beat a tennis player from the Top 10 in the world ranking. In the last month of 2015, Garbine advanced to the semi-final stage or higher three times at two Premiere Series tournaments and the Finals. During this period of time, she beat six tennis players from the Top 10 of the WTA rankings. Moreover, in 2016 Garbinwon the major , but in 2015 - no. And who can say that last season was better than this one? Muguruza ran out of steam at the end of last year's semi-final here against Agnieszka. Now she is not in danger. The best victory over the last six months for Garbin was Pavlyuchenkova in Cincinnati. Add to that a recent injury and you have a contender for 0-3.

The summer of 2016 completely turned Pliskova's career upside down. The 24-year-old tennis player, with excellent physique and outstanding serve, increasingly looked like a player who was never destined to live up to her potential. However, first Carolina showed up at grass tournaments, and then shot at tournament in Cincinnati . It may have been a post-Olympic tournament, but Caro had an almost perfect week. And already in New York she showed that this was not accidental. If Caroline had been more experienced, then only Agnieszka Radwanska would have been the only member of the White group without a victory at the Helmets. What are Pliskova's prospects at this tournament? She can finish it with a set balance of 0:6, or win without giving up a game along the way. Until you see at least a couple of games from this tennis player at a specific tournament, it is incredibly difficult to make predictions about her performance.

Expected Results: 1-3. Kuznetsova 2:1; Radwanska 2:1; Pliskova 2:1; 4. Muguruza 0:3.

If If Agnieszka makes it out of her group, she is definitely the main favorite to win. On the other hand, Halep has been beating around the bush for a big victory for many years. When, if not now? Why shouldn't Svetlana repeat last year's success of Radwanskaya? Or where is the confidence that Kerber will not turn into a machine again? The victory of any tennis player will be both logical and illogical at the same time. That's why this year's WTA Finals will be so interesting to watch.

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Wonderful things are happening in Russian tennis. Moscow and St. Petersburg staged a race to see who has more tournaments. City on the Neva was leading 2:1, but starting next year it will be 2:2. Peter has a men's St. Petersburg Open and women's Ladies Trophy. Moscow is rightfully proud of the Kremlin Cup, where both men and women play, and now it will also have a separate competition for ladies - the July International tournament on the open clay courts of the Juan Antonio Samaranch National Tennis Center of Russia.

Why the WTA's generosity? It's simple. The organizers of the Moscow tournament bought a license from the competition in Båstad (Sweden), which took place in the last week of July. This place on the calendar cannot be called convenient. The new Moscow tournament will be held on clay right before the start of the American series on hard court, where all the strongest tennis players will probably go. It is unlikely that Maria Sharapova will want to play on the ground before this, but the organizers of the new tournament promise to do everything possible to bring her to Moscow again.

results

WTA Final Tournament - 2017 (Singapore)

The prize fund is $7,000,000. Hard. Group stage. 3rd round

White group. Ostapenko (Latvia, 7) - Kar. Pliskova (Czech Republic, 3) 6:3, 6:1; V. Williams (USA, 5) - Muguruza (Spain, 2) 7:5, 6:4

Final position: 1. Pliskova (Czech Republic) - 2 wins/1 loss; 2. V. Williams (USA) - 2/1; 3. Muguruza (Spain) - 1/2; 4. Ostapenko (Latvia) - 1/2

Current winner: .

The final WTA Championship will be played in Singapore for the 48th time; it is held with the participation of the eight strongest tennis players in the world at the end of the season. The tournament was first held in 1971, but in 1986 there were already two draws. The competition constantly changed location - Houston, Boca Rayton, Los Angeles, New York, Oakland, Munich, Madrid, Doha and Istanbul. Since 2014, the competition between the eight strongest female tennis players in the world has been played in Singapore, and the license belongs to it until 2018 inclusive. Since 2019, among other competitors, St. Petersburg has also been competing for the tournament.

The record holder for the number of titles at the final WTA tournament is Martina Navratilova - eight. Steffi Graf and Serena Williams have five wins each, Chris Evert has four, Monica Seles and Kim Clijsters have three each. Of the Russians, Maria Sharapova won the tournament once (2004), and she was also a finalist two more times (2007, 2012), as was Vera Zvonareva (2008). After her victory in 2014, Serena twice qualified for the eight, but both times she refused to participate. In the current draw, in the absence of Sharapova, Serena and Azarenka, there is a large rotation of participants. There are three debutants in the tournament - Svitolina, Ostapenko and Garcia. Karolina Pliskova, Muguruza and Halep played from one to three last rallies. Caroline Wozniacki returned after missing two rallies. And the 2008 champion and 2009 finalist Venus Williams has not played at all in the last 7 final tournaments. Let us also note that 7 out of 8 participants in the tournament in Singapore, based on its results, can become the first racket of the world. But this is a topic for another discussion.

According to the competition regulations, the participants at the preliminary stage, based on the results of the draw, were divided into two groups - four tennis players each. Red group – Halep, Svitolina, Wozniacki, Garcia; White group - Muguruza, Pliskova, V. Williams, Ostapenko. Based on the results of the group round, the two best athletes advance to the playoffs, where, starting from the semifinals, the winner will ultimately be determined.

Participants in the final WTA Championship 2017:
V. Williams – 4 tournaments, 11 wins / 5 losses, best result – title (2008);
Wozniacki – 4, 9/7, final (2010);
Halep – 3, 5/6, final (2014);
Muguruza – 2, 4/3, semi-final (2015);
Kar.Pliskova – 1, 1/2, group;
Svitolina – debut;
Ostapenko – debut;
Garcia - debut.

Refused to participate: Milos Raonic (11), Tomas Berdych (19), Gael Monfils (36), Ivo Karlovic (49).

Current winner: .

The tournament in Vienna has been played since 1974 at the Winner Stadthalle arena. This is the home stadium of the Austrian national hockey team, in addition, the Eurovision Song Contest 2015 was held here. Since 2009, after the calendar reform, the tournament in the Austrian capital belonged to the ATP-250 category. However, in 2015, it exchanged licenses with a higher-status tournament in Valencia - ATP-500. And starting next year, the Spanish tournament ceased to exist altogether. Many famous tennis players won the competition in Vienna - Goran Ivanisevic, Andre Agassi, Boris Becker, Novak Djokovic (1), Nick Kyrgios (20), Gilles Muller (23).

Current winner: Marin Cilic.

The Swiss Indoor Court Championships are held in Munichstein, a suburb of Basel, at the St. Jakobshalle. The unsurpassed record holder here is local favorite Roger Federer - 7 titles. This year he is seeded number one, because after a trip to Asia, Rafael Nadal decided to withdraw from the competition.

Singles bracket matches of the final tournament of the year start on Sunday in Singapore WTA Finals.

GROUPS

The red and white groups, named after the colors of the Singapore flag, were led by and respectively. The German woman was kept company by , and , and the Polish woman - and and , who guaranteed herself participation in the final tournament by winning the Kremlin Cup.

DEBUTANTES

Three tennis players will make their debut at final tournaments this year - 21-year-old Keys, 24 years old Pliskova and 27 year old Tsibulkova.

Pliskova attracted increased attention during the US Open, where she reached the final, beating the record-setting . In addition, she has two titles (Nottingham, Cincinnati), a final in Eastbourne and a semi-final in Indian Wells. By the way, in Singapore she will perform not only in singles, but also in pairs with.

Tsibulkova Due to injury, she missed most of last season and ended it in her late 40s. But in this she won three titles - in Katowice, Eastbourne and Linz (he allowed her to get to Singapore), was in the finals three times, including major tournaments in Madrid and Wuhan, and also played in the quarterfinals of Wimbledon, after which she played a magnificent wedding with her chosen one Misha Navara.

In its turn Madison Keys- the youngest participant in the final tournament 2016. This season she entered the Top 10 for the first time and became the first after Serena Williams an American who debuted in the top ten worldwide. She won her second title in Birmingham and was in two important finals - in Rome and Montreal.

PROTECTION

A year ago Agnieszka Radwanska unexpectedly for many, she won the final championship. Now she is one of the clear favorites. The Polish woman is seeded number two and leads her quartet. Radwanska usually plays well in Asia and only this year she won two tournament victories there - in Shenzhen in the first week and at the super competition in Beijing most recently. The third racket of the world is, presumably, in an excellent mood and is ready to put an end to the 2016 season. According to rumors, she is also getting married in the off-season, and this should be inspiring.

INTRIGUE

This final tournament, to be honest, differs from many of its predecessors. First of all, the absence of truly big names. A competition that in the old days was seen as just another series of confrontations Serena Williams s or s, now they are deprived of such intrigue.

At the WTA Finals -2016 there is no clear favorite. Literally each of the participants can win in Singapore this time. Of course the chances Kerber or Radvanskaya higher than that of the not particularly stable one after the triumph at Roland Garros Mugurus, but who knows which of the eight participants will approach the end of the season in the best physical and psychological condition?

AWARDS

Before the start of the final championship, the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) distributed individual prizes to the players for the 2016 season: Angelique Kerber was named player of the year Joanna Konta- the tennis player who has made the most progress, Dominika Cibulkova won the "Comeback of the Year" category. Naomi Osaka became "rookie of the year" and Caroline Garcia And Kristina Mladenovic- "couple of the year."

FIRST RACKET OF THE WORLD

Kerber, who topped the WTA rankings after winning the US Open, officially guaranteed herself the title of first racket of the world at the end of the year. The 28-year-old German had an incredible 2016 season, during which she won two Grand Slam tournaments and was in the final of another. It is curious that Kerber, a very versatile player, has previously played at WTA Finals , but never left the group and generally won only two matches out of nine. The upcoming tournament in Singapore is an excellent opportunity to improve statistics and end the best season of my career on a positive note.

RUSSIAN

Sunday. Moscow. Svetlana KUZNETSOVA is the champion of the Kremlin Cup. Photo by AFP

Since 1997, there has been only one final championship - in 2013, where not a single representative of Russia competed. Now preparing to play in the tournament Svetlana Kuznetsova, who won a “custom” victory in Moscow, which guaranteed her a ticket to Singapore without any additional conditions.

This WTA Finals This will be the first for the 31-year-old Russian woman since 2009 and the sixth in her career. Only more experienced than her in this regard Radwanska, which is preparing to play at the final tournament for the eighth time. Kerber performed three times Halep- twice, and Muguruza- once.

Before, Kuznetsova had never qualified from the group at the final tournaments, and in general she won only three matches out of 15. And all three, surprisingly, were against compatriots Vera Zvonareva and Elena Dementieva (twice).

Svetlana leads her current group rivals in personal meetings with a total score of 13-6. In particular, the group leader Radvanskaya The Russian won 12 out of 16 matches, including most recently in Wuhan. WITH Muguruza they have parity - 1:1, and Pliskova Kuznetsova loses 0:1.

TANDEM

There will also be Russian representation in doubles. The Olympic champions have qualified for the doubles tournament early and are eager to end the season on a high note. But even in this category, serious competition is expected.

INJURY

Inimitable Serena Williams, a five-time winner of the final tournament, missed it for the second year in a row. In 2015, she was unable to pull herself together after a shocking defeat at the US Open, and this time the official explanation is a shoulder injury that has been bothering her throughout the fall.