WTA Championships 2008

WTA Championships 2008
date	November 4, 2008 - November 9, 2008
Edition	38
navigation	2007  ◄  2008  ►  2009
WTA tour
venue	Doha Qatar
Tournament number	808
category	WTA Tour Championships
Tournament type	Free place tournament
Game surface	Hard court
draw	8E / 4D
Prize money	US $ 4,550,000
Website	Official website
Last year's winner (individual)	Justine Henin
Last year's winner (double)	Cara Black Liezel Huber
Winner (singles)	Venus Williams
Winner (doubles)	Cara Black Liezel Huber
Tournament supervisor	Laura Ceccarelli Pam Whytcross
As of October 9, 2013

The 2008 WTA Championships (also known as the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Championships ) was a hard court women's tennis tournament in Doha , Qatar . It took place from November 4th to 9th, 2008 and, after the four Grand Slam tournaments, was the tournament with the highest endowment in terms of points and prize money in the tournament calendar of the WTA . The tennis championships of the WTA Tour in women singles and doubles were held for the first time in Doha, the years before they took place in Madrid .

The defending champions were Justine Henin in singles and the duo Cara Black and Liezel Huber in doubles. Henin did not take part, she announced her retirement from competitive sports on May 14, 2008.

The winner in the individual was Venus Williams , who defeated Vera Swonaryova 6: 7, ⁵ , 6: 0 and 6: 2. As in the previous year, Cara Black and Liezel Huber secured the double title. They won the final against Květa Peschke / Rennae Stubbs 6-1 and 7-5.

singles

qualification

The eight best placed women on the WTA Tour qualified for this competition. There were also two substitutes.

Individual WTA Race on November 3rd, 2008
#	Player	Points	Tournaments	Qualification date
1	Jelena Janković	4786	21st	July 30, 2008
2	Dinara Safina	3823	20th	September 4, 2008
3	Serena Williams	3681	12	September 4, 2008
4th	Jelena Dementjewa	3400	18th	September 18, 2008
5	Ana Ivanović	3353	17th	July 30, 2008
6th	Vera Swonaryova	2626	24	October 24, 2008
7th	Svetlana Kuznetsova	2623	18th	October 16, 2008
8th	Venus Williams	2522	13	October 24, 2008
9	Maria Sharapova	2515	9
10	Agnieszka Radwańska	2256	23
11	Nadia Petrova	1914	25th
12	Flavia Pennetta	1814	26th
13	Caroline Wozniacki	1756	23
14th	Patty Schnyder	1596	23
15th	Alizé Cornet	1499	24
16	Viktoriya Azaranka	1497	20th
17th	Marion Bartoli	1487	26th
18th	Dominika Cibulková	1447	26th
19th	Katarina Srebotnik	1410	25th
20th	Anna Chakvetadze	1370	24

Competition mode

In the round of the tournament , four players played in two groups, each against each other ( round robin) . The top two in each group qualified for the semi-finals. The winner of one group played against the second of the other group, the winners of these games played the final.

Seeding list

No. Player Round reached 01.  Jelena Janković Semifinals 02.  Dinara Safina Preliminary round 03.  Serena Williams Preliminary round 04th  Ana Ivanović Preliminary round

No. Player Round reached 05.  Jelena Dementjewa Semifinals 06th  Svetlana Kuznetsova Preliminary round 07th  Venus Williams victory 08th.  Vera Swonaryova final

Semi-finals, finals

Semifinals

final

8th

Vera Swonaryova

7th

3

6th

5

Jelena Dementjewa

6 7

6th

3

8th

Vera Swonaryova

7th

0

2

7th

Venus Williams

6 5

6th

6th

1

Jelena Janković

2

6th

3

7th

Venus Williams

6th

2

6th

Red group

		Janković	Ivanović Radwańska	Kuznetsova	Swonaryova	Round Robin S-N	Sentences S-N	Play S-N	Item
1	Jelena Janković		6: 3, 6: 4 (Ivanović)	7: 6 6 , 6: 4	6: 2, 3: 6, 4: 6	2: 1	5: 2	38:31	2
4 ALT	Ana Ivanović Agnieszka Radwańska	3: 6, 4: 6 (Ivanović)		6: 2, 7: 5 (Radwańska)	3: 6, 7: 6 5 (Ivanović)	0: 2 1: 0	1: 4 2: 0	21:30 13: 7	X 3
6th	Svetlana Kuznetsova	6: 7 6 , 4: 6	2: 6, 5: 7 (Radwańska)		2: 6, 3: 6	0: 3	1: 6	29:43	4th
8th	Vera Swonaryova	2: 6, 6: 3, 6: 4	6: 3, 6: 7 5 , 6: 4 (Ivanović)	6: 2, 6: 3		3-0	6: 2	44:32	1

• In the last group game, Ana Ivanović was replaced by Agnieszka Radwańska.

Maroon group

		Safina	S. Williams Petrova	Dementieva	V. Williams	Round Robin S-N	Sentences S-N	Play S-N	Item
2	Dinara Safina		4: 7, 1: 6 (S. Williams)	2: 6, 4: 6	5: 7, 3: 6	0: 3	0: 6	19:37	3
3 OLD	Serena Williams Nadja Petrowa	6: 4, 6: 1 (S. Williams)		4: 6, 6: 4, 4: 6 (Petrowa)	7: 5, 1: 6, 0: 6 (S. Williams)	1: 1 0: 1	3: 2 1: 2	20:22 14:16	X 4
5	Jelena Dementjewa	6: 2, 6: 4	6: 4, 4: 6, 6: 4 (Petrowa)		4: 6, 6: 4, 3: 6	2: 1	5: 3	41:36	2
7th	Venus Williams	7: 5, 6: 3	5: 7, 6: 1, 6: 0 (S. Williams)	6: 4, 4: 6, 6: 3		3-0	6: 2	46:29	1

• In the last group game, Serena Williams was replaced by Nadja Petrowa.

Double

qualification

The four best placed double pairings of the WTA Tour qualified for this competition.

WTA-Race in doubles on November 3rd, 2008
#	pairing	Points	Tournaments	Qualification date
1	Cara Black Liezel Huber	6158	23	August 20, 2008
2	Katarina Srebotnik Ai Sugiyama	2809	16	October 28, 2008
3	Květa Peschke Rennae Stubbs	2614	18th	October 28, 2008
4th	Anabel Medina Garrigues Virginia Ruano Pascual	2542	14th	October 16, 2008
5	Aljona Bondarenko Kateryna Bondarenko	2350	14th
6th	Chuang Chia-jung Chan Yung-jan	2196	18th
7th	Lisa Raymond Samantha Stosur	2167	10
8th	Yan Zi Zheng Jie	2093	14th
9	Shahar Peer Wiktoryja Asaranka	1657	7th
10	Venus Williams Serena Williams	1395	4th

Competition mode

The tournament winners were determined according to the knockout system.

Seeding list

No. pairing Round reached 01.  Cara Black Liezel Huber   victory 02.  Katarina Srebotnik Ai Sugiyama   Semifinals 03.  Květa Peschke Rennae Stubbs   final 04th  Anabel Medina Garrigues Virginia Ruano Pascual   Semifinals

Semi-finals, finals

Semifinals

final

1

Cara Black Liezel Huber

6th

6th

4th

Anabel Medina Garrigues Virginia Ruano Pascual

1

3

1

Cara Black Liezel Huber

6th

7th

3

Květa Peschke Rennae Stubbs

1

5

3

Květa Peschke Rennae Stubbs

6th

2

[10]

2

Katarina Srebotnik Ai Sugiyama

3

6th

4th

Web links

Commons : WTA Tour Championships 2008  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Official website WTA Championships (English)
• WTA Championships 2008 as PDF (English) on the WTA homepage
• WTA Championships 2008 (English) on the ITF homepage

Individual evidence

1. ↑ wtatennis.com: Notes & Netcords: October 3, 2008 (PDF; 549kB)
2. ↑ Janković qualified for the WTA final ( Memento from December 4, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
3. ↑ Safina qualified for the WTA final ( Memento from December 4, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
4. ↑ S. Williams qualified for the WTA final ( Memento from November 20, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
5. ↑ Dementjewa qualified for the WTA final ( Memento from December 20, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
6. ↑ Ivanović qualified for the WTA final ( Memento from December 4, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
7. ↑ Swonaryova qualified for the WTA final ( Memento from November 19, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
8. ↑ Kuznetsova qualified for the WTA final ( Memento from November 18, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
9. ↑ V. Venus qualified for the WTA final ( memento from November 19, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
10. ↑ Peschke and Stubbs qualified for the WTA final ( Memento from November 18, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
11. ↑ Srebotnik and Sugiyama qualified for the WTA final ( Memento from November 25, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
12. ↑ Peschke and Stubbs qualified for the WTA final ( Memento from November 25, 2008 in the Internet Archive )
13. ↑ Medina Garrigues and Ruano Pascual qualified for the WTA final ( Memento from November 18, 2008 in the Internet Archive )