Participants at the Commonwealth Bank Tournament of Champions
The field has been set for the inaugural Commonwealth Bank Tournament of Champions in Bali, a season-ending event featuring top ten highest-ranked players who have won an International tournament during the 2009 season but who are not competing at the Sony Ericsson Championships, which features the top eight singles players of the season.
LIST OF THE PLAYERS PARTICIPATING IN BALI
Direct Entrants
RANK (as of 10/26/09) / PLAYER / INTERNATIONAL TITLE/S WON
No.12 Marion Bartoli (Monterrey)
No.13 Samantha Stosur (Osaka)
No.19 Yanina Wickmayer (Estoril, Linz)
No.27 Anabel Medina Garrigues (Fes)
No.31 Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez (Bogota, Bastad)
No.32 Shahar Peer (Guangzhou, Tashkent)
No.39 Melinda Czink (Quebec City)
No.42 Agnes Szavay (Budapest)
No.44 Aravane Rezai (Strasbourg)
No.46 Magdalena Rybarikova (Birmingham)
Wildcards
No.25 Sabine Lisicki
No.100 Kimiko Date Krumm
The $600,000 Commonwealth Bank Tournament of Champions will take place November 4-8, 2009, and will feature an innovative 12-woman round robin singles format (four groups of three players). (source: Sony Ericsson WTA Tour)
This looks like a good field and I think it will be exciting. It is nice to see that these women are being recognized.
i dont understand how this tournament works….
I find this tournament a bit strange and unnecessary. Maybe I'll change my mind.
Nacho, the link I gave in this article (http://www.womenstennisblog.com/2008/09/22/wta-tour-announced-tournament-of-champions-–-the-sony-ericsson-championships-for-losers-sort-of/) should clarify the set-up of the tournament. Do you still have some questions?
i agree wtih you marija!!! but let's see how it goes!!! thanks for the link!
lol, a chance for the unlucky players who weren't in the top 8 to earn more money. I also find this tournament unusual and unnecessary. I'm not a big fan of these girls (well, minus Sam!) so I'm interested in how well this tournament will do in terms of revenue.
I'm glad I was helpful, Nacho.
Lilly, I don't have a feeling that the tournament will be a success.
It seemed like a good idea at the beginning by the WTA to give the lower ranked players some exposure using this tournament but the more I think about it I tend to agree with you Marija, I don't think it will be a success. They should have put the Championships next week and the Tournament of Champions last week because it would be fitting to end the season with the eight best players in the world battling it out rather than finishing up the season the way it is now.
Bróna, I was thinking exactly the same thing – why not finish the season with the very best players. And yeah, in the beginning I liked the idea too.