Early Storylines Emerging Ahead of the 2014 WTA Finals
The annual end-of-season tournament featuring the world's eight highest ranked players in women's tennis kicks off Friday in Singapore.
Now named the WTA Finals, rather than the WTA Championships as in previous years, the eight competing in a star-studded line-up will be Caroline Wozniacki, Ana Ivanovic, Agnieszka Radwanska, Eugenie Bouchard, Petra Kvitova, Simona Halep, Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams.
Only Williams (four times), Kvitova and Sharapova have previously won the title—will we see a new winner lifting it this year or a more familiar face?
Take a look at all of the early storylines emerging ahead of what should be a brilliant tournament to end the year.
Can Fan-Favourite Agnieszka Radwanska End an Underwhelming Year on a High?
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As Peter Bodo summarised in his preview for the WTA Finals on Tennis.com, Agnieszka Radwanska "definitely seems to have dropped a level from the two previous years.”
This year, the Pole has only claimed a single title, winning in August at Montreal. She had won three titles in each of the previous three years.
Moreover, she has managed to beat a fellow top-10 player in just two tournaments: Victoria Azarenka at the Australian Open, where she impressively reached the semi-final, and Jelena Jankovic and Simona Halep at Indian Wells, where she surprisingly lost to Flavia Pennetta in the final.
Her chances, then, appear slim coming into the Finals because she will be playing the other seven best players in the world.
Question marks have always lingered about whether she has the necessary power to truly compete at the highest level. Her flair and tactical variety, which have heavily contributed to her being named WTA Fan Favorite Singles Player of the Year three years running, have so often overcome her deficiencies.
But that appears to be less and less the case.
It is certainly not all doom and gloom. She is still ranked No. 6 in the world, hence her qualification for the Finals, which is reflective of her superb consistency. In seven of the nine highest ranked Premier tournaments, for example, she has reached at least the quarter-final.
Simply going one better in Singapore by getting past the round-robin stage would be a brilliant building block for a better 2015.
Can Ana Ivanovic Finally Challenge at an Important Tournament?
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Unlike Radwanska, 2014 has been a hugely memorable year for Ana Ivanovic.
She has reached as many finals (six) as any other player on tour and has won as many titles (four) as any other player but Serena Williams.
It has been a fantastic turnaround for a player who was ranked No. 58 just four years ago. In 2008, Ivanovic won the French Open and topped the women's rankings.
However, while she has qualified for the Finals for the first time since that year, it would be a stretch to suggest she has reached those heights once again.
None of the Serb’s four titles came at any of the Grand Slams or even the nine highest ranked Premier tournaments.
But she has beaten more top 10 players this year than in the last three years combined, including the only win over Maria Sharapova on clay all year and a fantastic win over Serena Williams at the Australian Open.
Those wins indicate she can beat any opponent on her day.
She also arrives in Singapore in good form having beaten Caroline Wozniacki to win the Pan Pacific Open last month.
It is certainly an outside shot, but this could be Ivanovic's chance to shine at a major tournament.
Who Will Put Herself Forward for WTA Player of the Year 2014?
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In each of the last five years, the player to win the WTA Finals has subsequently been named WTA Player of the Year.
Of course, the chances are that the best player of that year will naturally win the WTA Finals.
This was certainly the case with Serena Williams in three of the last five years, campaigns where she also won two of the four Slams.
Regardless, the WTA Finals clearly play a significant part in the WTA’s mind when announcing the winner of the annual award.
It will take on increased importance for Williams this year given the fact the U.S. Open is her only Slam win of 2014.
Should either Maria Sharapova or Petra Kvitova—arguably Williams' closest candidates for the award—prove victorious later this month, the winner will surely have a great chance of picking up the award having won one Slam each this year, too.
This was exactly the case in 2004 for Sharapova and 2011 for Kvitova.
Both had won debut Slams at Wimbledon before going on to win the end-of-season championships and the main award.
Will lightning strike twice for an Eastern European? Or will it be Serena three years running?
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Young Guns Will Have No Fear
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Simona Halep, 23, and Eugenie Bouchard, 20, were two of this year’s three debut Slam finalists (along with Dominika Cibulkova).
They will also be this year’s two debut Finals contenders.
Outside of the aforementioned three on the previous slide, the Romanian and the Canadian certainly appear the most likely candidates to cause an upset in Singapore.
Both lost out to more experienced competitors in their respective Slam finals but in entirely different manners.
Halep narrowly lost to Maria Sharapova in a three-hour epic at the French Open that The Independent's Paul Newman described as "one of the best women’s finals here in recent years."
Bouchard’s defeat, however, was somewhat less gallant. She was battered by Petra Kvitova in the shortest Wimbledon final for 31 years at just 55 minutes.
Both players play with relentless, energetic styles, and it appeared to have taken its toll at the U.S. Open, where both were knocked out prior to the quarter-final of a Slam for the first time this season.
It remains to be seen whether either, or both, can bounce back at Singapore.
Either way, however, as Sharada Iyer described for Tennis World, their breakthrough years have “[conquered] and [wowed] the world with a freshness that has been uniquely invigorating, as it has been qualitatively promising.”
It's Shaping Up to Be Williams vs. Sharapova...Again
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B/R’s Merlisa Lawrence Corbett hit the nail on the head when describing the situation women’s tennis finds itself in once more: “Funny, after all the hype about the emerging Eugenie Bouchard, the surging Simona Halep and the recharged Petra Kvitova, women's tennis finds itself where it's been for the past five years: focused on Williams and Sharapova.”
Both on and off the court, Williams and Sharapova have been the stars of women’s tennis for a decade now.
It all began when a 17-year-old Sharapova shocked Williams in the 2004 Wimbledon final to win her first Slam.
However, the current world No. 1, Williams, has won the pair’s last 15 meetings.
Indeed, Williams has been No. 1 since February 2013 but now finds her status under threat from a resurgent Sharapova, who has climbed from No. 7 in only June to a more familiar No. 2 spot.
As a result, the pair will not meet until at least the semi-final.
Should both top their respective groups, a potentially mouth-watering final awaits.
While everyone is excited to see how the likes of Ivanovic, Bouchard and Kvitova will perform, it’s fair to say former great Tracy Austin spoke for most people when she told WTAFinals.com, “if there were two players I would want to see competing in a big final, it would be those two."
Williams would no doubt be the favourite given her record against her rival.
But, as Chris Evert pointed out to WTAFinals.com, it is the American’s movement which has given her the edge over Sharapova over the years: "I think Serena's game is always going to give Maria trouble because of movement. Serena can run down a lot of Maria's balls. So Maria has to hit three or four more if she's going to win the point.”
With Sharapova in fantastic form and Williams struggling with a knee injury that forced her to pull out of both the Wuhan and China Opens recently, it may be the perfect time for the Russian to end her decade-long hoodoo should they meet.
With the WTA Player of the Year Award potentially at stake as well, a potential match at the WTA Finals would certainly give the duo's enduring rivalry an added—and perhaps unforeseen—twist.
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