WTA Finals: Who is missing?

The field in Singapore seems to be more open than ever before – everyone has a chance to win the title. What is curious is which successful players will not be there in 2017.

By Florian Goosmann from Singapore

It was an absurd statistic, which made the Twitter round before the tournament. Namely about the players who are NOT in Singapore. Like, among other things:

the Australian Open winner (Serena Williams), the US Open winner and finalist (Sloane Stephens and Madison Keys), the player who was number 1 for the longest time in 2017 (Angelique Kerber), the player who was number 1 for the second longest time in 2017 (again Serena Williams), the winner of Indian Wells (Elena Vesina – where she was the winner of Indian Wells. By the way, the winner in 2008 was… Venus Williams.

To name a favourite is more difficult than it has been for a long time, which makes the season’s end open and exciting. The majority of all participants had the strongest season ever (or for a long time) without having identified an over-player, because there was always something missing somewhere:

Simona Halep has finally fulfilled her dream of number 1 in Beijing after three unsuccessful attempts and arrived as the leader of the Porsche Race in Singapore, but despite a strong season she has often failed in finals and won only one title (in Madrid) in 2017.

Garbine Muguruza has now won her second Grand Slam title in Wimbledon, her second Grand Slam title after Paris last year. In Cincinnati the fifth was added – but surprisingly little for a top player.

Karolina Pliskova was off to a strong start in the year and for a short time the number 1, but then things didn’t go really well, which resulted in the separation of coach David Kotyza (who wanted to make her play even more aggressive, in the style of his long-time protégé Petra Kvitova, which Pliskova didn’t like).

Elina Svitolina made Angelique Kerber’s life hell at the beginning of the season and is probably partly to blame for the crash. She has even won most titles of the year in the end (five pieces), but somehow she didn’t manage to become number one, mainly because of her moderate performances at the big events (still she hasn’t reached a Grand Slam semi-final yet)

Caroline Wozniacki was back in the top 5 from 19th place at the beginning of the season and had to take six final defeats until the seventh final finally won the title. What would have been possible with a better final yield?

Venus Williams has defeated time again, but without finishing the great fairy tale with a major title; she lost twice in the final (in Melbourne against Serena, in Wimbledon against Garbine Muguruza)

Jelena Ostapenko has managed the feat of winning her first title in Paris, followed by the second in Seoul – but she still lacks constancy.

Caroline Garcia probably still doesn’t know how she made it to Singapore, because she didn’t even have a chance to make it to the top 8. But then she won eleven matches at a time and snatched the titles in Wuhan and Beijing

This week, a lady can now take the unofficial world championship title. Who’s who? The players in the Red Group could have better chances, Halep, Svitolina, Wozniacki and Garcia, who are stronger runners. Because: The place in Singapore is supposed to be – and everyone agrees – rather slow.