With a field that does not include Serena Williams, next week's WTA Finals is wide open. Who has the best shot to take the WTA season finale? Here's a look at the eight women who will be competing in Singapore.
Group A
Simona Halep
Record in 2015: 48-15, three titles (Shenzhen, Dubai, Indian Wells)
Season highlights: Lady Luck revealed herself as a Halep fan in the California desert this spring, with Serena Williams withdrawing from her semifinal against the Romanian at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden. But that's not to say that Halep's victory at the tournament, which was the biggest title of her career, was an easy or soft win. In the final she had to scuffle past Jelena Jankovic in a tight three-setter, with the Serbian saying afterward, "Simona was unbelievable. We were running like two dogs and in the end I couldn't keep up any more. She's the younger one." America was good to Halep, who made it to the final four of the US Open, where she was beaten by eventual champion Flavia Pennetta.
Season lowlights: The European Grand Slams weren't so fun for Halep. It was at the 2014 French Open where Halep appeared in her first Grand Slam final, but on her return to Roland Garros this year she progressed only as far as the second round, losing to Mirjana Lucic-Baroni. A semifinalist at last season's Wimbledon, she was beaten in the first round of this year's tournament by Jana Cepelova, ranked outside the top 100. After that defeat, Halep spoke of the growing negativity about her in Romania, with the public saying "bad things" about her.
What to expect from her in Singapore: On Halep's first appearance in the WTA Finals last season, she finished as the runner-up to Serena Williams (having thrashed the Californian in the round-robin stages). There has been some doubt over Halep's involvement this year after she retired from her opening match in Beijing because of pain in her ankle, so her performance is uncertain.
Maria Sharapova
Record in 2015: 34-8, two titles (Brisbane, Rome)
Season highlight: The Australian Open final was yet another failure for Sharapova, and yet also her finest moment of the season to date. When does a player lose her 16th successive meeting against one opponent and not feel completely discouraged and disgruntled? This year's Australian Open final, when Sharapova lost in straight sets to Serena Williams, was that very occasion. And an engrossing match, it was, too. No one abhors losing as much as Sharapova does. Serena aside, you won't find a more competitive woman in tennis. Sharapova, though, didn't stalk out of Rod Laver Arena and immediately toss her rackets into the nearby Yarra River. She's not one for defeatism or despondency. She would have been encouraged by how she pushed Williams in what was their most enthralling encounter in years, and would have started to plot for their next meeting. Sharapova, without a win over Williams for more than a decade, isn't one to balk at a challenge (that sequence of defeats was extended to 17 when she lost to Williams in the Wimbledon semifinals).
Season lowlights: Coughing fits complicated Sharapova's performances at the French Open, with the defending champion losing in the fourth round to Lucie Safarova, and that same illness didn't help her preparations for Wimbledon, where she was a beaten semifinalist. But at least she made it onto the court for the European Grand Slams, which she didn't for the US Open. A knee injury meant that she played no part at Flushing Meadows, or at any tournaments during the North American, summer hard-court swing.
What to expect from her in Singapore: Of the eight women in Singapore, none has played such a thin post-Wimbledon schedule as Sharapova has. Since leaving the All England Club in July, she hasn't even completed a match. Even when making her return in Wuhan this month she retired from her opening appearance because of an arm injury. No doubt, Sharapova's prospects have been improved by Williams' absence. And the Siberian is a former champion at this tournament, albeit way back in 2004 (where she last defeated Williams). However, it's hard to imagine that Sharapova has played enough tennis in recent months to be able to win this title.
Agnieszka Radwanska
Record in 2015: 48-23, two titles (Tokyo, Tianjin)
Season highlights: Until the Asian swing, it appeared as though Radwanska would go without a title this season, and she also didn't think that she would qualify for Singapore. Then she won a couple of tournaments in quick succession, with titles in Tokyo and Tianjin, with a run to the Beijing semifinals sandwiched in between. The other most productive period of the year for her was the summer grass-court swing, when she was a semifinalist in Nottingham, a finalist in Eastbourne and a semifinalist at Wimbledon.
Season lowlights: "Nervous and angry" was Radwanska's emotional response to losing in the first round of the French Open to Germany's Annika Beck, an opponent she had beaten 6-0, 6-0 in a previous meeting. The nerves were because she wasn't able to do what she wanted on the court, and that made her fearful for the future. That defeat in Paris, one of many dispiriting results in the first half of the year as Radwanska tumbled out of the top 10, came a few weeks after her super, part-time coach, Martina Navratilova, resigned from her position having "underestimated the time it would take to make this proper and good."
What to expect from her in Singapore: Twice a semifinalist, Radwanska has no lack of experience in the tournament, with this the fifth consecutive season that she has qualified. (The only other player in the field to have shown such consistency over the past five years is Petra Kvitova.) On top of that, Radwanska has form and momentum on her side, after her recent successes in Asia.
Flavia Pennetta
Record in 2015: 27-18, one title (US Open)
Season highlights: In one of the most improbable finishes to a Grand Slam in tennis history, the 33-year-old scored her first major at the US Open and suddenly her life was "perfect." The women's singles final was supposed to be when Serena Williams would accomplish the calendar-year Grand Slam, and the ticket prices reflected that, but what we ended up with was the Friendly Final between Pennetta and Roberta Vinci, an all-Italian match played out in front of Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi. Almost as surprising as Pennetta's victory was her disclosure during the postmatch ceremonies that she would be retiring from tennis.
Season lowlights: Eight times Pennetta lost her opening match in 2015, including at two of the Grand Slams (the Australian Open and Wimbledon), at her country's most important event (Rome), and at the tournament that preceded her US Open triumph (New Haven). It was those results, no doubt, that had persuaded Pennetta in the weeks leading up to New York that it was time to step away from the tour.
What to expect from her in Singapore: If Pennetta can win the US Open, then why can't she also bag the WTA Finals? Qualifying for the year-ending tournament, she disclosed, "is a dream come true and the perfect way to end an amazing season for me -- it will be a wonderful way for me to say goodbye to tennis, with a spectacular stage to bow out on." This is a new experience for Pennetta -- while she has played and won the doubles tournament at the WTA Finals, she has never before been among the singles elite. Clearly, nothing Pennetta accomplishes in Singapore will top the theater and emotion of what happened in New York. That was the goodbye to end all goodbyes. But there's the opportunity for the Italian to once more sweep off stage in triumph.
Group B
Garbine Muguruza
Record in 2015: 38-18, one title (Beijing)
Season highlights: Muguruza's performance in the Wimbledon final, where she was the runner-up to Serena Williams, demonstrated that she isn't scared of being under the bright lights. Linking up with a new coach, Sam Sumyk, gave her a late-season push, which saw her make the Wuhan final and win the Beijing title.
Season lowlights: The post-Wimbledon euphoria dissipated on North American concrete, with Muguruza winning just one match during the summer hard-court swing, which included opening defeats in Toronto and Cincinnati and a second-round departure from the US Open, where she was bumped from the draw by Britain's Johanna Konta. It was during that hard-court season that Muguruza's player-coach relationship with Alejo Mancisidor came to an end, which led to the new partnership with Sumyk.
What to expect from her in Singapore: Muguruza's recent form in Asia would suggest that she is more than capable of a strong finish to the season. While this will be her first appearance in the singles tournament at the WTA Finals, the experience won't be entirely new for her as she played in the doubles event last year.
Petra Kvitova
Record in 2015: 35-13, three titles (Sydney, Madrid, New Haven)
Season highlight: As Kvitova says herself, this has been "a really weird season, for sure." There have been some trying times and "some tough moments" for the Czech in 2015, but there have also been some pleasing victories. Of the three titles she has won so far this year, the most impressive was her triumph in Madrid, coming as it did on clay, a surface that doesn't suit her game as much as grass or hard courts do (her other two titles were on hard surfaces). That tournament victory in Spain also came soon after she returned from an enforced break from tennis.
Season lowlight: "Exhausted and empty," she took a monthlong break from tennis in the spring, missing the hard-court tournaments in Indian Wells and Miami, but that wasn't the last of her health concerns this season. In late summer, she disclosed that she had been diagnosed with mononucleosis or glandular fever.
What to expect from her in Singapore: Of all the times she has qualified for the season-ending tournament -- and this is the fifth successive year that she has been among the elite field -- this must count as the most satisfying, given her health problems. It was on Kvitova's first appearance at the tournament, in 2011, that she took the title as an undefeated champion, having won all her round-robin matches. So she knows what it takes to sweep through this tournament.
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