Reem’s Singapore diary: WTA’s finest shop ‘til they drop

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  • Shopaholic: Simona Halep.

    The WTA Finals is without a doubt one of the most intense tournaments the ladies have to go through with the event so compact and the competition at the highest level – they’re the top-eight in the world after all.

    So it’s been interesting to know what the players have been up to in between their matches.

    Singapore is quite similar to Dubai in the fact that they both have huge fancy malls that make it very hard to resist shopping.

    The players were all staying at the Marina Bay Sands hotel which happens to be attached to a mall that has all the top brands.

    I spotted Ana Ivanovic shop­ping with her mother earlier in the week as well as Angelique Kerber, who was here as an alternate.

    Finals runner-up Simona Halep managed to squeeze in a shopping spree every day apparently.

    “I went every day to the shops. I bought something every day. But in the afternoon I slept every day, so one hour per day was a good prepa­ration for these matches, tough matches,” said the Romanian.

    “For sure I will go tomorrow to buy something huge, because I have reasons to be happy and to buy something.”

    Singing Serena

    Serena Williams is known to be a karaoke queen and you’d think she paid a visit to one or two karaoke joints here in Singapore but the American did one better.

    “I haven’t had time, but I did have a karaoke system installed in my room, so I pretty much sang every night. I didn’t sing last night. For whatever reason I was tired,” said Williams.

    “Before the Mariah Carey con­cert I sung most of her songs just to get ready. I didn’t want to disap­point her as I screamed the lyrics to ‘Hero’, so…"

    Besides the winners’ cheque of over $2 million and the trophy, Williams was given an orchid named after her, which is a Singaporean tradition and honour they bestow here on their VIP guest.

    Asked which she valued more, the money or the orchid, Williams said: “The orchid. I love flowers, and I think I’m really excited about that.”

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