Skip the Second Tier Championships?
The Sony Ericsson WTA Tour held its inaugural Commonwealth Bank Tournament of Champions in Bali last week. The event featured the top twelve players (including two wildcards) based on results in the second tier tournaments who had not also qualified for the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Championships in Doha. The Tournament of Champions
ended after Marion Bartoli retired because of an injury against Aravane Rezai in the final after losing the first set 7-5. The event certainly provided additional prize money and ranking points to twelve players, but is there really a need for a second year-end championships?
The press coverage of the tournament was limited and it was not televised in the United States. Aravane Rezai, the 2009 winner of the Tournament of Champions, was ranked 44th entering the event. Rezai is now ranked a career-high of 26th (she was 78th at the end of 2008). Rezai beat players ranked 28th, 38th and 30th to reach the final where she played the 12th-ranked Bartoli who had beaten Rezai in their two previous matches. There were twelve talented players competing in Bali who have had memorable years including Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez and Japanese wildcard Kimiko Date Krumm. Nonetheless, given the player and fan “fatigue” at the end of the long season it might make much more sense to spend the $600,000 of prize money on a couple lower tier WTA tournaments earlier in the season and provide prize money and ranking points for over a 100 players… maybe it will happen sometime in the future!
The press coverage of the tournament was limited and it was not televised in the United States. Aravane Rezai, the 2009 winner of the Tournament of Champions, was ranked 44th entering the event. Rezai is now ranked a career-high of 26th (she was 78th at the end of 2008). Rezai beat players ranked 28th, 38th and 30th to reach the final where she played the 12th-ranked Bartoli who had beaten Rezai in their two previous matches. There were twelve talented players competing in Bali who have had memorable years including Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez and Japanese wildcard Kimiko Date Krumm. Nonetheless, given the player and fan “fatigue” at the end of the long season it might make much more sense to spend the $600,000 of prize money on a couple lower tier WTA tournaments earlier in the season and provide prize money and ranking points for over a 100 players… maybe it will happen sometime in the future!
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