WTA Finals review: Best player, matches and talking points from Singapore

Best match – Serena Williams v Caroline Wozniacki

It’s just incredible to watch these two close pals cast their friendship aside and torture each other on court like that. This was the match we were craving to see at the US Open final. Maybe the WTA Finals is a less stressful stage, maybe Wozniacki was buoyed with confidence from her group wins or maybe it was hanging out at the Mariah Carey concert the night before, but for whatever reason, these two combined to produce a nail-biting match that simply had everything. Squandered leads, match points saved, epic comebacks… and of course the point of the tournament when Wozniacki volleyed to save the first match point.

Biggest disappointment – Sara Errani/Roberta Vinci

The Italian duo’s WTA Finals campaign lasted a mere nine minutes. They flew all the way to Singapore, had Italian media follow them there, and when they stepped on the court, Errani was forced to retire three games into their match against the Czech/Slovak pair of Kveta Peschke and Katarina Srebotnik with an injury.

Best sportsmanship – Simona Halep and Caroline Wozniacki
Both players showed what the WTA is really about. Playing your heart out and competing with honour. Neither player needed to win their final round robin match to advance but they still gave their bestanyway. In Halep’s case, she could have eliminated Williams had she lost to Ana Ivanovic in two sets. But she lost in three and kept the top seed in the competition. For Wozniacki, finishing second in her group would have seen her avoid a semi-final against Williams, who had beaten her nine times before. But still Wozniacki chose to beat Petra Kvitova to finish top of her group.

Unsung heroes – Ana Ivanovic and Maria Sharapova
Midway through their last round robin matches, both players knew they were out of the tournament after dropping sets to their respective opponents. But that didn’t stop either one from digging deep to win their final sets, which were effectively dead rubbers. They refused to succumb to the mid-match disappointment and insisted they end their seasons with a win, earning the crowd’s admiration in the process. The cherry on top of the cake for Ivanovic, is that she ended the year in the top-5. She got so excited when we told her in press that climbing to No5 in the world was a possibility. Truly well-deserved!

Talking points

Singapore

Attendance was phenomenal, entertainment was top-notch and for a first-year event, it was definitely a huge success.

Rising stars
The concept is a good one but the event wasn’t promoted well and would have benefitted more from coinciding with the top-eight action, rather than having the matches played in the three days leading up to the event.

Eugenie Bouchard
She got schooled, losing all three matches, but she said the right things after – that she will learn from this and come back stronger. The young Canadian needs to learn how to use tactics against different opponents.