THE WTA CONUNDRUM – DID THE WTA ELITE TROPHY JUST ECLIPSE THE WTA ELITE IN THE WTA FINALS? BY GLOBAL CHICK

Written by: on 9th November 2015
BNP Paribas WTA Finals 2015 in Singapore
THE WTA CONUNDRUM – DID THE WTA ELITE TROPHY JUST ECLIPSE THE WTA ELITE IN THE WTA FINALS? BY GLOBAL CHICK

epa05006006 Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland celebrates with the Billie Jean King Trophy after defeating Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic in their singles final match at the BNP Paribas WTA Finals 2015 held at the indoor stadium in Singapore, 01 November 2015. EPA/WALLACE WOON  |

It has often been said that we should appreciate our great champions (Maria Sharapova, Serena Williams, Venus Williams) while we still have them. But at the weekend the elder Williams showed us she still had a trick or two up her elegantly designed sleeves, as she highlighted a bit of a flaw with the current WTA finale season.

 

As we gallop headlong towards the giant tent that is the O2 Arena for the Barclays ATP World Tour Finals we have to wonder about the (never-ending) season finale set-up. Let’s be straight here – the ATP has a Challenger Tour final – which is made up of the top seven players in that year’s ATP Challenger Tour plus an invited player from the host country.

 

Up to last year, the WTA recognised those players who had won one or more International Tier titles, but had not qualified for the Championships. This year however, it was the players ranked 9-20 plus a wildcard, which was OK in principle (even if we put aside the headache-inducing four-group round robin format), but the mess-up in the run up to this year’s WTA Finals probably further soured the milk.

 

Players who had set their names down for Luxembourg in the preceding week, in the hope that they might just sneak the points needed to book their flight to Singapore found out a little too late that Luxembourg did not count.

 

This may be a touch picky-pernickety but surely the WTA Finals is made up of the Elite, not the second string tournament? While we are on the subject there was a lot of stick for the eventual finalists. While the runaway winners of each group in Singapore (Maria Sharapova and Garbiñe Muguruza) were all but assured in our collective copy for the best final outcome in a Serena Williams-depleted field, it just goes to show, there is nothing certain where the battles of the fuzzy balls are concerned.

 

In the semi-finals the run-away favourites for the final stumbled and the complex scenarios looked for all the world like a game of Tetris had been out on the lash and had been on the great white telephone to a deity of your choice.

 

Now, pay attention at the back – the scenarios were ‘what did it’ for this year’s finals. In the group of lefties, two-time Grand Slam champion Petra Kvitova was all but out with a 1-2 record, and was relying on compatriot Lucie Safarova to win in straight sets to send her through. Now let’s think about this for a second. All (!) Angelique Kerber had to do was to win a set. Just one. She had already bemoaned the points/will-she-won’t-she qualify situation, and quite rightly decided that she really didn’t want to be part of this endless merry-go-round of the tennis equivalent of If This Then That.

 

But she was not backwards in stating her dissatisfaction of the format when she lost. Then again… just one set, love.

 

Then Agnieszka Radwanska toiled long and hard to get past the in-form Muguruza from also 1-2 down to make her first final. To be fair, we got a final. After a rocketing start from Radwanska, Kvitova kicked into gear before the ‘La Profesora’ ninja-ed her way to her first WTA Finals title and the biggest title of her career. So stunned was she, for most of the pictures she looked as though she was just holding it for someone else!

 

Now we can’t begrudge her this moment. She can only play who is on the other side of the net, and the whole darned point of the format is that this is NOT like a normal tournament, nor should it be!

 

But let’s get back to the crux of the issue. Venus Williams is an athlete who has more than played her part in changing the face of women’s tennis, and after all her health and injuries her resurgent year had the perfect end. But ever the professional, Williams was in Singapore as an alternate before hoofing it to Zhuhai.

 

Take nothing away from her – she absolutely deserves her place back in the Top 10, and it is quite frankly inspiring to see her play to such a level still. But did she not deserve her place in the limelight alongside Radwanska, who finishes in the year-end rankings just two places above her?

 

It is not beyond the realms of possibility that even a WTA International focussed finale might see some cross-over between alternates and confirmed names, but this was just confusing.

Ladies & Gentleman, your 2015 #WTAEliteTrophy champion, @VenusWilliams!! – Photo by @wta via Instagram.

 

The fact of the matter is that the WTA’s ongoing commitments in Asia are here for a while. New CEO Steve Simon advocated to the press in Singapore that these tournaments need their time to mature. But some simple changes surely can be implemented because we are not naïve enough to believe that changes are going to be immediate – after all how many of us have already downloaded our 2016 Tour Calendar PDF?

 

The name, the participants – these are probably easier to make than a switcheroo in the diary at this stage. Perhaps a return to the initial premise of the Tournament of Champions which shone the light on those who were more victorious in the International tier events. We understand that the Asia link is here to stay for the next few years, and we applaud using the WTA Finals to showcase the WTA Future Stars, the Legends, but again the Rising Stars format was just confusing.

 

Steve Simon has a lot of work to do, and he came in for a bit of flack for referring to the WTA as a premium product but I will say this – the WTA way of doing things is clear, and they know how to make their players accessible to media. BUT take the length of the tour in a year, the demands on the players anyway, and then add enough airmiles to fly you to the moon and back in Premium Astronaut class – things do need to be simplified.

 

We don’t expect it to be overnight. We do expect it to (eventually) make some sense though. We’ll be watching, every step of the way.

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