2014 WTA Finals: Odds for Each Contender to Win in Singapore
The refreshing air which gripped the WTA season in January was replaced by the scent of normal service come July. The recently retired Li Na charmed the Australian Open as Serena Williams captured Grand Slam title No. 18 at the U.S. Open.
Williams might be the favourite to close the season with the 2014 WTA Finals trophy in Singapore, and the odds will favour the Champion.
Simona Halep, without question one of the breakthrough players of the last two years, took Maria Sharapova to three sets at Roland Garros. The two have been separated in Singapore, meaning another titanic clash could be on the horizon in the later rounds.
Eugenie Bouchard has been kept apart from the woman who stopped her claiming a remarkable first Grand Slam at Wimbledon in June. Petra Kvitova will instead join Sharapova, Agnieszka Radwanska and Caroline Wozniacki in the White Group.
Ana Ivanovic completes the Red Group, lead by the seeded Williams.
The following slides will include odds devised for the purposes of this article.
Caroline Wozniacki
1 of 8
Odds: 10-1
Wozniacki might have spent the hours since the groupings were revealed contemplating the mechanics of one of her more significant triumphs.
A round of 16 win over Sharapova at the U.S. Open paved the way for a comfortable route to the final. Acquiring the taste for beating the world No. 2 over three sets couldn't have come at a better time.
The Dane hadn't beaten Sharapova since 2011 at Indian Wells, only to lose to her in Rome two months later.
Three straight defeats to the Russian before this year's victory for Wozniacki will be irrelevant. She knows that the 2014 version of Sharapova has weaknesses she has taken advantage of before.
Wozniacki hasn't played Kvitova this year, but beat Radwanska in Cincinnati in August.
Her 100 percent record for 2014 against the players in her group was built on hard court foundation, too. This suggests Wozniacki has a chance to progress from the group, but another encounter with Williams may be a step too far.
Ana Ivanovic
2 of 8
Odds: 12-1
Ivanovic started the year beating Williams in the Australian Open and losing to Bouchard in the next round. If she follows a similar formula at the year's conclusion, progression to the semi-finals is achievable.
The Serbian has also played Simon Halep twice this year. Halep won on clay in Madrid but Ivanovic got revenge on the hard court at Beijing.
The world No. 8 will hope that muscle memory kicks in when she faces Halep on the hard indoor court in Singapore.
Ivanovic has four wins this year and beat White Group's Wozniacki twice on route to victories in Monterrey and Tokyo.
Whether she gets the chance to beat Wozniacki again will largely rely on her opening encounter against Williams. Ivanovic has lost the last three encounters against Williams— in Cincinnati, Stanford and Rome—but did beat her in Australia.
If Ivanovic can summon the guile to fend off the U.S. Open Champion, the last four could beckon.
Agnieszka Radwanska
3 of 8
Odds: 17-1
Radwanska's record against her group opponents this year does not bode well.
Three matches played, against Sharapova twice and Wozniacki, ended in defeats. Back-to-back losses to Sharapova in Stuttgart and Madrid, both in two sets, could weigh on her mind.
Radwanska, who qualified for the tournament in 6th place, may focus her attention on Kvitova. The Pole might hope for a similar slip to the one Kvitova endured at Flushing Meadows against Aleksandra Krunic in August.
The Czech will be Radwanska's first opponent. A win for either would be crucial, but even if Radwanska were to qualify there may be too much in the Red Group for her to have a chance of winning the title.
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Eugenie Bouchard
4 of 8
Odds: 13-1
Daria Gavrilova sent Bouchard out of the Australian Open at the qualifying stage in 2013. A year later, the Canadian was beaten by eventual champion Li Na in the semi-finals.
After upsetting Ivanovic at Wimbledon last year, Bouchard was beaten in the next round by Carla Suarez Navarro. Twelve months on and she was competing in her first Grand Slam final in the year's third major.
The 20-year-old has enjoyed an excellent season, winning one title on tour in Nuremberg. However, she might have been glad to have avoided Kvitova in the groups, who has twice beaten her in a final this year.
Bouchard is yet to face off against group favourite Williams this year, with the last meeting ending in a win for the world No. 1 in Cincinnati last August.
Simon Briggs of The Telegraph noted Bouchard's "gift is to combine great self-belief with a fiendish work ethic." This marrying of traits will aid her against a warrior like Williams.
While she agonisingly missed out on landing a remarkable first Grand Slam this year, the future very much belongs to the powerful phenom. Victory in Singapore will be tough, but an ideal way to truly arrive.
Simona Halep
5 of 8
Odds: 11-1
In two years, Halep has climbed from No. 47 to No. 3 and won eight tournaments, six of which came in a prolific 2013 for the Romanian. Last year's season also concluded with a win over Sam Stosur in the Tournament of Champions in Sofia.
2014 has not proved quite so fruitful, but she made at least the quarter-final in three of the four majors, including a final appearance at Roland Garros.
Halep missed out on a clash with Ivanovic in Beijing earlier this month through injury but did beat her on clay in Madrid.
She has gone the entirety of 2014 without meeting Williams and was knocked out of the Wimbledon semi-final by Bouchard. However, she did beat the Canadian on the hard court at Indian Wells in March.
Erik Gudris of Tennis Now rightly notes that "the pressure is off Halep" following a slightly subdued second half to 2014. Few will expect her to advance beyond the semi-finals, but Halep's purposeful rise has shown she does little by half measures.
Petra Kvitova
6 of 8
Odds: 7-1
Kvitova won her second Wimbledon title in July, seeing off Red Group's Bouchard in a comfortable two sets.
Since then, she has made three finals, winning twice, including another victory over Bouchard in Wuhan.
A surprise defeat at the U.S. Open was sandwiched in between her win in Wuhan and in New Haven. Her fellow White Group competitor Sharapova beat her in Beijing in three sets.
The Russian aside, Kvitova has not played either Radwanska or Wozniacki this year. However, she did beat Radwanska twice last year, including in the 2013 edition of this tournament.
Kvitova looks the clear favourite to qualify for the semi-finals along with Sharapova. A repeat of her win in this end of season tournament in 2011, where she beat both Radwanska and Wozniacki, would conclude a strong season for the No. 4.
Maria Sharapova
7 of 8
Odds: 5-1
Sharapova has enjoyed a successful 2014 against the other competitors in Singapore, beating all of them except Williams and Wozniacki.
Although four titles have been accumulated over the course of the season, the world No. 2 endured a mixed year in the Grand Slams.
Winning at Roland Garros was of course the highlight, but Sharapova was unable to advance beyond the round of 16 in any of the remaining three majors.
It seems that both she and Kvitova are the favourites to advance from the White Group. Sharapova, though, has the edge in the head-to-heads. Of the eight meetings between the two, she has won the last five, per WTAfinals.com.
Progression from the group seems likely, with a Sharapova-Williams final the obvious call. However, any premature thinking from Sharapova could see Wozniacki pounce for the second time this season.
Serena Williams
8 of 8
Odds: 4-1
In the wake of disrespectful comments from Russian Tennis Federation president Shamil Tarpischev, per Alan Smith of the Guardian, Williams has a chance to respond in exactly the right way.
The numbers suggest she might.
Her record against the others players in the Red Group reads 11-1, per WTAfinals.com.
Combine that impressive feat with the fact that she has six titles in 2014, one of which was the U.S. Open, and the tag of favourite seems justified.
Williams also beat Wozniacki three times in a row this season, meaning a semi-final match between the two would see history favour the No. 1.
A third straight win in these finals would do little to further cement Williams' status in the game. Yet victory would keep the ball rolling into 2015 when the Australian Open becomes a priority again.
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