Tuesday October 27, 2009
Serena and Safina ready to battle for world supremacy
LONDON: The equation could not be simpler — whoever performs best out of Russian Dinara Safina and American Serena Williams at next week’s WTA Championships in Doha will end the year as world number one.
Sunday’s draw appeared to hand the advantage to 23-year-old Safina as she was placed in the easier of the two four-women groups that will be contested at the Khalifa Tennis Centre on the shores of the Persian Gulf.
She will face late qualifier Jelena Jankovic of Serbia, the 2008 year-end number one, and tournament debutants Caroline Wozniacki, the US Open runner-up from Denmark, and Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, in the White Group.
Serena, who claimed the number one spot from Safina at the China Open earlier this month, will once again find herself a handful of points behind the Russian when the latest world rankings are published by the WTA on Monday.
Line ’em up: From left, Jelena Jankovic of Serbia, Victoria Azarenka of Belarus, Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark, Serena Williams of the US, Dinara Safina of Russia, Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia, Elena Dementieva of Russia and Venus Williams of the US pose during the draw for the WTA Tour Championships at the Museum of Islamic Art conference centre in Doha on Sunday. — Reuters The American is also in the much tougher Maroon Group in Doha where she must play sister Venus, the defending champion, and formidable Russians Svetlana Kuznetsova, the French Open winner, and Olympic gold medallist Elena Dementieva.
To have the battle for No.1 going to the wire is a dream scenario for women’s tour chiefs and the Qatari tennis authorities who paid US$42 million to stage the season-ending event for three years until it moves to Istanbul in 2011.
The WTA Tour finals have often struggled to capture the imagination of the public. Last year in Doha the early round robin matches were played in a muted atmosphere, although the fact that Serbia’s Jankovic had already clinched the number one spot hardly boosted late ticket sales.
This time, however, everything will be on the line when the US$4.5mil tournament gets underway today. — Reuters
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