The grand finale has opened: at the elegant gala evening including a draw ceremony in the “Grand Ballroom”, the WTA finals will show where they want to stand.
By Florian Goosmann from Singapore
It is often a bit difficult to tell the non-tennis expert that there is also a world champion and a world champion in tennis. At least unofficially. But that’s why he can’t quite reach the winner of a Grand Slam tournament. Because… well… the four Grand Slam tournaments are the most traditional events of the tour, go over two weeks, and finally only one of 128 participants remains.
They are always fighting for equality, the annual finals of the WTA and ATP, but they have exactly what no other tournament has to offer: the eight best players of the year – exclusively, for a whole week. And that is exactly what they are rightly taking advantage of.
The opening gala in the mega-chic “Grand Ballroom” of the gigantic Sands Expo & Convention Centre in Singapore did not seem to be an award ceremony in itself for nothing, as it was.
Simona Halep, Garbine Muguruza, Karolina Pliskova, Elina Svitolina, Venus Williams, Caroline Wozniacki, Jelena Ostapenko and Caroline Garcia strutted along the flat catwalk between the invited guests in lightning flashes and finest evening clothes, and somehow it was amusing to watch the passage in high-heeled shoes. Right at the front: the ladies Wozniacki and Williams (who danced their last steps), whereas Pliskova is still able to work on the legs (but also on the one on the court).
The beauty: All the ladies seem to be fit, even if the murderous thin/high heels, especially those of Wozniacki, Williams and Halep, probably caused some coaches slight doubts – or to say every man a riddle on several levels.”Running along this path in these shoes was harder than a tennis match,”said Halep, the winner of the Porsche Race to Singapore and
Garcia in particular had secured her first participation with a double strike in Wuhan and Peking on the last few meters and is attending the year-end closing ceremony as a premiere guest alongside Svitolina and Ostapenko. Understandably, it was not only her that she had an astounded smile left over when Venus Williams’ first year of participation was named: 1999. In another era, Yelena Ostapenko was just two years old at that time….
Before the start of the white group on Sunday (Pliskova – Williams, Muguruza – Ostapenko), the Media Day will start on Saturday, at least during the day. Caroline Wozniacki in particular has other plans for the evening:”Judge me because of me, but I am super excited to experience the Backstreet Boys tomorrow in Singapore,”she twittered at the end of the evening.