Results: The WTA Championships in Istanbul (WTA)
- Serena Williams def. Na Li 2-6, 6-3, 6-0
- Su-Wei Hsieh and Shuai Peng def. Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina 6-4, 7-5
Results: Swiss Indoors in Basel (ATP)
- Juan Martin del Potro def. Roger Federer 7-6(3), 2-6, 6-4
- Treat Huey and Dominic Inglot def. Julian Knowle and Oliver Marach 6-3, 3-6, 10-4
Results: Valencia Open (ATP)
- Mikhail Youzhny def. David Ferrer 6-3, 7-5
- Alexander Peya and Bruno Soares def. Bob and Mike Bryan 7-6(3), 6-7(1), 13-11
Tournaments this week:
- ATP: BNP Paribas Masters Paris Indoors
- WTA: WTA Tournament of Champions in Sofia, Bulgaria
- WTA: Nanjing Ladies Open
- ITF: Fed Cup Final featuring Russia in Italy
Serena Williams has appeared in the WTA Championships three times in her career. She has yet to lose a match at the year-end event. Undefeated in Doha back in 2009 and again last year in Istanbul, she returned to Turkey to defend her title as the #1 player in the world, and is now 15-0 at the tournament.
Going into the final, Na Li was also undefeated at this year’s tournament, taking-out Sara Errani, Jelena Jankovic, Victoria Azarenka and Petra Kvitova. Serena’s road to the final included wins over Angelique Kerber, Agnieszka Radwanska, Petra Kvitova, and Jelena Jankovic – who squeaked into the semifinals because she’d won one more set than Victoria Azarenka during round robin play.
In doubles Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina defeated the top-ranked doubles team of Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci in their semifinal match (10-3 in the third), but lost the final to the second-ranked team of Su-Wei Hsieh and Shuia Peng.
In the end, Serena finished a dominant season 5,000-points ahead of Victoria Azarenka, while Na Li finished 3rd (over 2000-points behind Vika). The injured Maria Sharapova ends 2013 at number-4, while Agnieszka Radwanska finishes the year in the top-5. Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci earned #1 stripes with another amazing year together, and represent their country this weekend at home against Russia in the Fed Cup Final.
Meanwhile, on the ATP World Tour, the guys are jockeying for the remaining spots in London’s ATP World Tour Finals, their year-end championship. Despite making the final in Basel, where he lost to defending champion Juan Martin del Potro, Roger Federer must win his second-round match in Paris this week to earn his way in.
In Valencia, David Ferrer fell short of defending his title to Mikhail Youzhny, who hoisted his second trophy of 2013 and 10th of his career. The real battle of Valencia came during the doubles final where Alexander Peya and Bruno Soares saved four match points from Bob and Mike Bryan to repeat as champions. Both sets in the final were tie-breaks; Bruno and Alexander finally won it 13-11 in the Supertiebreak.
