WTA Tour Championships in Doha

Amidst all the complaining among players on the ATP tour about the length of the season, and the inevitable backlash, it's easy to forget that the WTA, which starts at the same time as the ATP, is finishing up its season this week. That is a month before the ATP's year-end championships. A bit curious, don't you think?

The format in Doha is the same as it has been for the past several years - the top eight players are split into two groups, with each player facing the other three women in her group in round robin matches. The top two players from each group then advance to the semifinals, which then plays out like a normal tournament. Understandably, the way the two groups are split ends up being essential to the way the tournament unfolds.

The most interesting thing that happened in the rankings this week (and the top ten were going crazy, as we'll see) was that Dinara Safina moved back ahead of Serene Williams to reclaim the number one spot. I don't pretend to understand the way that the WTA rankings system works - it doesn't make sense to me, since Serena didn't do anything after the U.S. Open in 2008, so I don't know why points would drop off, but in any case, Safina is back in the top spot. But whoever advances further in the year-end championship will finish the year as number one. A draw (should both players fail to make the semifinals, for example) goes to Safina, I think. But again, I could be wrong.

So how are the top two players' chances, from the looks of things? Of course, the competition is going to be tough, since this is the top eight players in the world, but the draw seems very, very lopsided. The Maroon group features both of the Williams, both of the slam winners from the past year who are in the top 8 (Serena and Kuznetsova - Clijsters obviously is not ranked that highly), and the fourth player in the group is the best active women's tennis player to have never won a slam, Elena Dementieva, who participated in the best match of the year on the women's side, in her semifinal against Serena at Wimbledon.

The opposite group, the White group (which doesn't feature the Williams sisters, remember) has wayward world number one Dinara Safina, U.S. Open finalist Caroline Wozniacki, Belarussian teenager Victoria Azarenka, and Jelena Jankovic, who squeaked in to the top eight by a razor-thing margin. Just for the record, the Maroon group has 34 grand slam final appearances, 20 grand slam titles, and 2 Olympic Gold Medals. The White group has 5 grand slam finals and no major titles. As I said, maybe a bit lopsided?

Of course, when things are this lop-sided, the players from the Maroon group might kill each other in the round robin and then be exhausted by the semifinals. But the much younger and relatively unproven group does have some up-and-coming talents, as well as players who are anxious to show the world that they deserve to be respected. These are the best eight players in the world right now, and there's no doubt that there is a possibility for some scintillating tennis. I'm looking forward to it.