The 2008 WTA Tour Championships (also known as the ''

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WTA Tour Championships'' for sponsorship reasons) was a

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tournament played on outdoor

hard court A hardcourt (or hard court) is a type of surface or floor on which a sport is played, most usually in reference to tennis courts. It is typically made of rigid materials such as Asphalt concrete, asphalt or concrete, and covered with acrylic resin ...

s. It was the 38th edition of the year-end singles championships, the 33rd edition of the year-end doubles championships, and is part of the

2008 WTA Tour The 2008 Sony Ericsson WTA Tour was the elite professional tennis circuit organized by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for the 2008 tennis season. The 2008 WTA Tour calendar comprises the Grand Slam tournaments (supervised by the Internationa ...

. It took place at the Khalifa International Tennis Complex in

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, from 4 November through 9 November 2008.

Finals

Singles

Venus Williams Venus Ebony Starr Williams (born June 17, 1980) is an American inactive tennis player. She has been ranked as the List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association, WTA for 11 wee ...

defeated

Vera Zvonareva Vera Igorevna Zvonareva ( rus, Вера Игоревна Звонарёва, p=ˈvʲerə ˈiɡərʲɪvnə zvənɐˈrʲɵvə, a=Vera zvonareva.ogg; born 7 September 1984) is a Russian former professional tennis player. Her career-high singles ran ...

, 6–7^(5–7), 6–0, 6–2. *It was Venus Williams' 3rd title of the year, and her 39th overall. It was her 1st career year-end championships title.

Doubles

Cara Black Cara Cavell Black (born 17 February 1979) is a Zimbabwean former professional tennis player. Black was primarily a doubles specialist, winning 60 WTA Tour and 11 ITF Women's Circuit, ITF doubles titles. A former List of WTA number 1 ranked dou ...

Liezel Huber Liezel Huber (née Horn; born 21 August 1976) is a South African- American retired tennis player who represented the United States internationally since August 2007. Huber has won four Grand Slam titles in women's doubles with partner Cara B ...

defeated

Květa Peschke Květoslava Peschke (, née Hrdličková; born 9 July 1975) is a Czech former professional tennis player who was ranked world No. 1 in doubles. She reached a career-high singles ranking of No. 26 in November 2005, winning one WTA singles titl ...

Rennae Stubbs Rennae Stubbs (born 26 March 1971) is an Australian former professional tennis player, coach and television commentator. She was ranked number 1 in the world in doubles, and the winner of 4 major doubles titles and 2 mixed doubles titles as wel ...

, 6–1, 7–5.

Players

The top eight players and the top four doubles teams in the

will qualify for the Championships. Two more players will also come to

as reserves. Should any player withdraw, they will enter the tournament.

Qualified singles players

On 30 July,

Jelena Janković Jelena Janković ( sr-Cyrl, Јелена Јанковић, ; born 28 February 1985) is a Serbian former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in women's singles by the W ...

and

Ana Ivanovic Ana Schweinsteiger (name at birth, née Ivanovic; born 6 November 1987) is a Serbian former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tenn ...

became the first two players to qualify for the year-end championships. Jelena-jankovic

Following a surging 2007, Janković started the year at the

Hopman Cup The Hopman Cup is an international tennis tournament that plays mixed teams (one male and one female) on a country-by-country basis. It was first held in Perth, Western Australia each year from 1989 to 2019, played on indoor hardcourt, before b ...

where she partnered with

Novak Djokovic Novak Djokovic ( sr-Cyrl-Latn, Новак Ђоковић, Novak Đoković, separator=" / ", ; born 22 May 1987) is a Serbian professional tennis player. He has been ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players#Weeks at N ...

to reach the final, losing out to United States'

Serena Williams Serena Jameka Williams (born September 26, 1981) is an American former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the List of WTA number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WT ...

and

Mardy Fish Mardy Simpson Fish (born December 9, 1981) is an American former professional tennis player. He was a hardcourt specialist. He is one of several American tennis players who rose to prominence in the early 2000s. Fish won six tournaments on the ...

. She reached the semifinals of the

Australian Open The Australian Open (stylized ΛO) is a tennis tournament organised by Tennis Australia annually at Melbourne Park in Melbourne, Victoria (state), Victoria, Australia. It is chronologically the first of the four Grand Slam (tennis), Grand Sl ...

a few weeks after falling to

Maria Sharapova Maria Yuryevna Sharapova (, ; born 19 April 1987) is a Russian former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 21 weeks. Sharapova won 36 WTA Tour-level sin ...

, the eventual champion where she beat Serena Williams en route in the quarterfinals. In February and March, she reached a lone final at the

Sony Ericsson Open The Miami Open (also known as the Miami Masters and as the Miami Open presented by Itaú for sponsorship reasons) is an annual professional tennis tournament held in Miami Gardens, Florida, United States. It is played on outdoor hardcourts a ...

losing to Serena Williams 1–6, 7–5, 3–6. She further reached two semifinals and two quarterfinals. In the clay season, Janković won the Italian Open for the second straight year against surprise finalist

Alizé Cornet Alizé Cornet (; born 22 January 1990) is a French professional tennis player. She has won six singles and three doubles titles on the WTA Tour, as well as three singles and three doubles titles on the ITF Women's World Tennis Tour, ITF Circuit. ...

who was an 18-year-old qualifier. At the French Open, she reached her third straight major semifinal but fell in three grueling sets to once again the eventual champion in Ana Ivanovic, a match that decided the new World No. 1. Janković then headed straight to

Wimbledon Wimbledon most often refers to: * Wimbledon, London, a district of southwest London * Wimbledon Championships, the oldest tennis tournament in the world and one of the four Grand Slam championships Wimbledon may also refer to: Places London * W ...

where she lost to

Tamarine Tanasugarn Tamarine Tanasugarn (, , ; born 24 May 1977) is a Thai former tennis player. Born in Los Angeles, she turned professional in 1994, and has been in the top 20 in both singles and doubles. Tanasugarn's career-high WTA ranking is No. 19, achiev ...

in the fourth round. Janković eventually became the 18th female No. 1, replacing compatriot Ivanovic on August 11. At the Beijing Olympics, she lost to eventual silver medalist

Dinara Safina Dinara Mubinovna Safina (, ; ; born April 27, 1986) is a Russian former professional tennis player. She was ranked as the world No. 1 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for 26 weeks, and world No. 8 in doubles. Safina ...

in the quarterfinals. At the US Open, Janković beat

Elena Dementieva Elena Viacheslavovna Dementieva (, ; born 15 October 1981) is a Russian former professional tennis player. She was WTA rankings, ranked world No. 3 in women's singles and world No. 5 in women's doubles by the Women's Tennis Association, WTA. Dem ...

in the final four to reach her first Grand Slam final but lost to Serena Williams. In the fall season, she won three consecutive tournaments at the China Open, the

Porsche Tennis Grand Prix The Stuttgart Open, also known by its sponsored name Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, is a women's tennis tournament held in Stuttgart, Germany (until 2005, in Filderstadt, a southern suburb of Stuttgart). Held since 1978, the tournament is the oldest p ...

and the

Kremlin Cup The Kremlin Cup () is a professional tennis tournament played on indoor hard courts, which was suspended in 2022. It was part of the ATP Tour 250 series of the ATP Tour and was a Premier Tournament on the WTA Tour. It was held annually at the ...

justifying her return to the top spot. Ana Ivanovic at Indian Wells

Ana Ivanovic began the 2008 season by reaching the finals of the

where she lost to

in straight sets. She then managed to win her sixth title and third Tier I title in Indian Wells, beating

and

Svetlana Kuznetsova Svetlana Aleksandrovna Kuznetsova (born 27 June 1985) is a Russian former professional tennis player. She was ranked as high as world No. 2 in singles and world No. 3 in doubles by the Women's Tennis Association, WTA. Kuznetsova won 18 singl ...

in the semifinals and finals respectively. Following a mediocre pre-French Open season where she failed to defend her title in

Berlin Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population withi ...

, she entered Roland Garros as the second seed and favourite. She lived up to that expectation by winning her first Grand Slam (and her only to date) and becoming the first Serbian to reach the No. 1 spot, virtue of beating compatriot Janković in the semifinals. She defeated first-time Grand Slam finalist

6–4, 6–3. In her first tournament as the new world No. 1 at

, she was upset in the third round by Chinese wildcard

Zheng Jie Zheng Jie (born 5 July 1983) is a Chinese former professional tennis player. In May 2009, she achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 15. Zheng is one of China's most successful tennis players. She won four singles titles on the ...

. Following a disappointing Wimbledon campaign, she suffered an injury-marred US Open Series as she withdrew from

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and the

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, which Ivanovic described as "one of the worst moments in my career". She played only one tournament which was at the Rogers Cup and was eliminated in the third round. As the top seed for the US Open, she suffered for the second straight major a loss to a player ranked outside the top 100 in French qualifier

Julie Coin Julie Coin (; born 2 December 1982) is a retired French tennis player. Coin recorded the biggest win of her career by defeating the then- world No. 1 ranked Ana Ivanovic at the 2008 US Open. Her career-high singles ranking is world No. 60, ...

. She returned to form in October by winning the indoor tournament in

Linz Linz (Pronunciation: , ; ) is the capital of Upper Austria and List of cities and towns in Austria, third-largest city in Austria. Located on the river Danube, the city is in the far north of Austria, south of the border with the Czech Repub ...

as well as reach the semifinals at the

. On 4 September,

and

were announced as the third and fourth qualifiers for the Championships. Serena Wimbledon 2008 trim

Serena Williams started the year at the

where she teamed up with

to win it for the US. At the

, she made the quarterfinals losing to Jelena Janković. On 18 September,

became the fifth qualifier for the Championships. Venus Williams playing to Agnieszka Radwanska

On 17 October, by reaching the quarterfinals at the

was confirmed as the sixth qualifier. On 25 October, the final two spots were taken by

and

. *

(4786) *

(3823) *

(3681) *

(3400) *

(3353) *

(2626) *

(2627) *

(2524)

Singles alternates

Agnieszka Radwańska Agnieszka Roma Radwańska (; born 6 March 1989) is a Polish former professional tennis player and current coach. She was ranked world No. 2 in women's singles by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA), in July 2012. Radwańska won 20 WTA Tour sing ...

(2256) *

Nadia Petrova Nadezhda Viktorovna "Nadia" Petrova ( ; born 8 June 1982) is a Russian former professional tennis player. A former top-five player in both singles and doubles, she reached a career-high ranking of No. 3 in the world in both disciplines (doing s ...

(1914)

Withdrawn players

(2515) ''(Sharapova announced a hiatus from tennis from the Rogers Cup until 2009, which prevented her from continuing to collect points and qualify)''

Qualified doubles teams

In doubles, team

and

qualified with convincing lead with more than 6,000 points, while other three teams all failed to collect even a half of that number of points, with all of them being around 2,000. *

(6158) *

Anabel Medina Garrigues Ana Isabel Medina Garrigues (, ; born 31 July 1982) is a Spanish tennis coach and former professional player. As a player she reached a career-high ranking of world No. 16 in 2009, and won 11 singles and 28 doubles titles, including the 2008 ...

Virginia Ruano Pascual Virginia Ruano Pascual (; born 21 September 1973) is a Spanish former professional tennis player. She had moderate success in singles, winning three WTA Tour titles as well as reaching two major quarterfinals and a top-30 ranking, but she had ...

(2809) *

(2614) *

Ai Sugiyama is a Japanese former tennis player. She reached the world No. 1 ranking in women's doubles on the WTA Tour and had a career-high singles ranking of world No. 8, achieved on February 9, 2004. In her career, she won six singles and 38 doubles ...

Katarina Srebotnik Katarina Srebotnik (born 12 March 1981) is a Slovenian former professional tennis player. She reached a career-high singles ranking of world No. 20, on 7 August 2006. On 4 July 2011, she became the No. 1 of the WTA doubles rankings, holding thi ...

(2542)

Singles Championship Race

Singles

Players in gold have qualified for Doha. Players in brown withdrawn. The low-ranked players in blue after them would be played as alternates in Doha.

References

External links

*
WTA tournament draws
{{2008 WTA Tour

WTA Tour Championships WTA may refer to: Organizations *Washington Trails Association Washington Trails Association (WTA) is a non-profit organization that advocates protection of hiking trails and wilderness, conducts trail maintenance, and promotes hiking in Washin ...

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Tennis tournaments in Qatar

Sports competitions in Doha