{"id":364,"date":"2016-09-19T17:20:24","date_gmt":"2016-09-19T21:20:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordontennis.com\/?p=364"},"modified":"2016-09-19T17:20:24","modified_gmt":"2016-09-19T21:20:24","slug":"wta-championships-one-month","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/2016\/09\/19\/wta-championships-one-month\/","title":{"rendered":"WTA Championships: One Month To Go"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The <strong>WTA Championships<\/strong> start on October 23, meaning that little more than a month is left for players to qualify and ensure their\u00a0status as one of the elite eight.<\/p>\n<p>2016 has been quite a surprising year, as far as women\u2019s tennis results are concerned. The gold medal won by <strong>Monica Puig<\/strong> (although <strong>Olympics<\/strong> doesn\u2019t give count for ranking points) was clearly the most unexpected. It certainly wasn\u2019t the only one though. <strong>Angelique<\/strong> <strong>Kerber\u2019s<\/strong> tremendous season, with two Grand Slam titles and the number one spot, was unpredictable at the beginning of the year. Likewise, <strong>Karolina <\/strong><strong>Pliskova\u2019s<\/strong> appearance in the\u00a0final\u00a0of <strong>New York<\/strong>, despite\u00a0winning <strong>Cincinnati<\/strong> the week before. The fact that she had\u00a0never reached a Slam\u00a0fourth round\u00a0made her runner-up ending surprising.<\/p>\n<p>With the conclusion of the <strong>US Open<\/strong>, 2016 Grand Slams are officially over. The last crucial points to qualify for <strong>Singapore<\/strong> are available in the Asian Swing. <strong>Wuhan<\/strong> and <strong>Beijing\u00a0<\/strong>in particular are\u00a0the biggest two WTA Premier Tournaments to be played. Indeed, the winner of these two tournaments have the opportunity to earn 900 and 1000 points respectively, a godsend in the final rush.<\/p>\n<h2>Who is definitely heading to Singapore?<\/h2>\n<p>The WTA Championships qualification cut is 4330 points. Currently, only Angelique Kerber and <strong>Serena Williams<\/strong> have overcome it. The former has gained a total of 7800 points, the latter 7050. Though Kerber\u2019s amazing performances in 2016 make her total amount of ranking points unsurprising, one may be concerned about\u00a0Williams&#8217; points. However, in Grand Slams alone\u00a0she was able to earn 5380 points &#8211;\u00a06280 if her victory in <strong>Rome<\/strong> is added. 89 percent\u00a0of her ranking points come from just five tournaments, an amazing statist.<\/p>\n<p>Moreover, <strong>Simona Halep<\/strong> is just 71 points away from qualification which\u00a0makes her participation in Singapore\u00a0almost certain. It is similar for Karolina Pliskova and <strong>Agnieszka Radwanska<\/strong>, who won the last edition of the WTA Championships. It seems\u00a0likely that we are going to see these five players fighting for the last WTA title of the season.<\/p>\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color: #fff; display: inline-block; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; color: #a7a7a7; font-size: 11px; width: 100%; max-width: 594px;\">\n<div style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0; text-align: left;\"><a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/495326346\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 66.666667% 0 0 0; width: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; margin: 0;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/495326346?et=tlkskhSyT61yUJWuOAXKwQ&amp;viewMoreLink=off&amp;sig=fummkrcwo16DUAW9JckeW1UW0ob63doOAsTxVT4cgLM=&amp;caption=true\" width=\"594\" height=\"396\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p style=\"margin: 0;\">\n<\/div>\n<h2>Who is still yet to confirm their plane ticket to Singapore?<\/h2>\n<p>The sixth position in the race is <strong>Garbine Muguruza\u2019s<\/strong>.\u00a0Since winning the French Open the Spaniard has\u00a0struggled for consistency.\u00a0She lost to\u00a0<strong>Jana Cepelova<\/strong> in the second round\u00a0of Wimbledon, and to Latvian <strong>Anastasia Sevastova<\/strong> at the same stage of the US Open. Even though she has 500 points more than <strong>Dominika Cibulkova<\/strong>, ranked seventh, she\u2019ll need some good results in the last part of the season to secure her spot at the WTA Championships. After Muguruza, all of\u00a0the other players have earned, as for now, a total less than 3000 points. <strong>Victoria Azarenka\u00a0<\/strong>is the exception, but she clearly will not\u00a0be in Singapore due to her pregnancy. This scenario makes the final rush entertaining to say the least.<\/p>\n<p>Only eighteen points separate Cibulkova in\u00a0seventh and\u00a0<strong>Madison Keys<\/strong>. <strong>Carla Suarez Navarro\u00a0<\/strong>is\u00a0in the middle of the pair. However, only two of them are going to make it to Singapore. Or, perhaps, one, or maybe\u00a0none. <strong>Johanna Konta<\/strong> together with <strong>Svetlana Kuznetsova<\/strong>\u00a0are\u00a0piling pressure on their shoulders. Kuznetsova is just 433 points away from Cibulkova. However, neither Konta nor\u00a0the Russian\u00a0are scheduled to play a WTA tournament this week, so that their qualification seems to be quite tough.<\/p>\n<p>Apart from big upsets, it seems quite reasonable to state that the\u00a0following have little chance of earning a\u00a0spot. <strong>Timea <\/strong><strong>Bacsinszky<\/strong>, <strong>Venus Williams<\/strong>, <strong>Roberta <\/strong><strong>Vinci<\/strong>,\u00a0<strong>Elena <\/strong><strong>Vesnina<\/strong> and <strong>Samantha <\/strong><strong>Stosur<\/strong> seem to be too far\u00a0away\u00a0to have a\u00a0possibility of getting a ticket to Singapore. This is exacerbated by\u00a0the fact that none of these are going to be on court this week.<\/p>\n<h2>How does the WTA Championships\u00a0line-up differ to 2015?<\/h2>\n<p>Now that a general overview of the 2016 situation has been outlined, it is\u00a0interesting to look at the eight who participated in the 2015 edition of the WTA Championships. Serena Williams,\u00a0ranked #1\u00a0in 2015, decided to skip the last part of the season after her loss to Roberta Vinci in the US Open semifinals. The number one seed belonged to Halep, a player\u00a0whose tremendous consistency will allow her to\u00a0probably participate this year. Same for Radwanska and Kerber, respectively fifth and sixth seeds in 2015. Garbine Muguruza probably won\u2019t be seeded as high as in 2015, where she was #2. Regardless,\u00a0we\u2019ll probably see her fighting to\u00a0claim the title alongside the seven other competitors.<\/p>\n<p>The situation though, is very different as far as\u00a0the four remaining\u00a0players are concerned. <strong>Maria Sharapova<\/strong> and <strong>Flavia Pennetta<\/strong> won\u2019t be able to be there this year. The Russian\u00a0was banned earlier this year, and it\u00a0is still unsure\u00a0when she will to\u00a0return.\u00a0The latter officially called\u00a0an end to her\u00a0career after Singapore in 2015. Despite being asked to\u00a0return to\u00a0tour and play some further competition, it has\u00a0been a year since she last played a professional WTA match. Funnily enough, that was\u00a0her loss to Sharapova in the round robin stage of last year&#8217;s WTA Championships. The Czechs, <strong>Petra <\/strong><strong>Kvitova<\/strong> and <strong>Lucie <\/strong><strong>Safarova<\/strong> are still playing full time. Due to lack of consistency and injuries they\u2019re now respectively 21st and 60th in the live race rankings. Therefore, neither will be in Singapore.<\/p>\n<p>Singapore\u2019s 2016 edition will inevitably\u00a0provide a different scenario than last year.\u00a0With a month left to see who\u2019ll make it there, let\u2019s see, let\u2019s wait and\u00a0let\u2019s cheer!<\/p>\n<p>Main Photo:<\/p>\n<div class=\"getty embed image\" style=\"background-color: #fff; display: inline-block; font-family: 'Helvetica Neue',Helvetica,Arial,sans-serif; color: #a7a7a7; font-size: 11px; width: 100%; max-width: 594px;\">\n<div style=\"padding: 0; margin: 0; text-align: left;\"><a style=\"color: #a7a7a7; text-decoration: none; font-weight: normal !important; border: none; display: inline-block;\" href=\"http:\/\/www.gettyimages.com\/detail\/481335225\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Embed from Getty Images<\/a><\/div>\n<div style=\"overflow: hidden; position: relative; height: 0; padding: 65.824916% 0 0 0; width: 100%;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" style=\"display: inline-block; position: absolute; top: 0; left: 0; width: 100%; height: 100%; margin: 0;\" src=\"\/\/embed.gettyimages.com\/embed\/481335225?et=nK7eouYwTdtMxau9_hXoug&amp;viewMoreLink=off&amp;sig=IE_3iYjxNoCZi2QjJc9PWt9D_OhyBbiiicD4h-gpFyk=&amp;caption=true\" width=\"594\" height=\"391\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/div>\n<p style=\"margin: 0;\">\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The WTA Championships start on October 23, meaning that little more than a month is left for players to qualify and ensure their\u00a0status as one of the elite eight. 2016 has been quite a surprising year, as far as women\u2019s tennis results are concerned. The gold medal won by Monica Puig (although Olympics doesn\u2019t give [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1665,"featured_media":374,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1,4],"tags":[199,24,200,147,25,74,198,48,15,197],"class_list":["post-364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","category-wta","tag-agnieszka-radwanska","tag-angelique-kerber","tag-garbine-muguruza","tag-karolina-pliskova","tag-serena-williams","tag-simona-halep","tag-singapore","tag-tennis","tag-wta","tag-wta-championships"],"modified_by":"Sam Barker (Editor)","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1665"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/tennis\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}