I'm regularly reviewing fashion at Grand Slams (take a look at this year's tennis outfits at the Australian Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon and US Open) and this time I've decided to add the season-ending Championships, as another great tennis stage. The singles field at the $4,900,000 tournament this year played in Istanbul consists of eight players, so only the mere quantity of players significantly reduces the diversity of outfits. Therefore, nothing can outclass Grand Slams as the best stages for all the fashion fun, although some stars had brand new looks prepared for the WTA Championships.

Li Na and Victoria Azarenka are sporting neat outfits, but they are nothing new, we've seen them in previous tournaments. Li is wearing Nike Women's Holiday Smash Classic Top and Pleated Skort. Azarenka already gave a lot of exposure to her Nike Women's Holiday Set Point Graphic Tank and a matching skort during her run to the Luxembourg title and Tokyo semifinals.

Petra Kvitova, another Nike representative, is just like Azarenka wearing purple and grape tones. Caroline Wozniacki is wearing the best of her recent Adidas by Stella McCartney dresses, which she should've worn at the US Open, in my opinion, instead of the similar dress in white. Read more »

Vera Zvonareva worked her way to the victory over Caroline Wozniacki in the last match of the second day of the WTA Championships which finished close to midnight local time. Despite the loss, Wozniacki is now certain to stay No.1 when the year-end rankings are released, as Maria Sharapova withdrew from the tournament.

Zvonareva raced to a 4-0 lead and soon after to victory in the first set by taking the last, eighth game of the set to love. Zvonareva hit 18 winners to Wozniacki's only three, and nine unforced errors to Wozniacki's five. Read more »

The only former champion in the field, Maria Sharapova, looks somehow blocked during this week's WTA Championships and after losing to Samantha Stosur for the first time in their ten matches, the Russian fell to Li Na the following day 7-6 (4) 6-4.

The third White Group round-robin match of the tournament was long and unpredictable, as both Sharapova and Li had big ups and downs. Also, they piled up a total of 74 unforced errors, 37 each!

First it was Sharapova who led, 4-2, but then Li took charge and forced a tiebreak, their first in eighteen sets they played, and after Sharapova's 4-0 lead in the tiebreak, Li stormed to 7-4 to win the set. The second set was also undecided. At 5-2 for Li, Sharapova broke her opponent's serve, and you can never count Sharapova out. However, the Russian wasn't even close to her best and Li eventually won 7-6(4) 6-4.

The 2004 champion Sharapova is so far the biggest disappointment of the tournament, and we don't know how much of it is due to her very recent ankle injury. The former world No.1, now ranked No.2, was the biggest Caroline Wozniacki's competitor for the top ranking. All the Dane has to do now to secure her year-end top spot is to beat Vera Zvonareva in the match they've just started. (photo: Esther Lim)

Samantha Stosur's dream season now has another memorable mark besides the US Open title – the veteran defeated Maria Sharapova for the first time in their ten meetings in the long history of seven years.

In their five previous matches, the last one of which dates back to 2006, Sharapova never lost more than four games per set, but today her dominance over Stosur encountered an obstacle and the Australian was victorious in the first match of the White Group at the WTA Championships. Read more »

The 2011 TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships in Istanbul start tomorrow, not affected by the devastating earthquake that killed around 270 people in Turkey. Players and the Tour expressed their condolences, but their job is calling them to focus on the big task ahead.

Since only the most successful eight players of the season are in the competition, it is not entirely reasonable to talk about the toughness of the draw, but we can always speculate: is the world No.1 the favorite, or the most-established players, or the late season bloomers, or someone else? Let’s analyze the two round-robin groups.

RED GROUP: Caroline Wozniacki, Petra Kvitova, Vera Zvonareva, Agnieszka Radwanska

The tournament will start with the clash between Kvitova and Zvonareva. Kvitova is making her debut at the WTA Championships, but at this year’s Wimbledon she showed she doesn’t shy away at grand stages. Also, the Czech is fresh off a WTA title in Linz.

Another first-time qualifier, Agnieszka Radwanska, is also in action on the first day, against world No.1 Caroline Wozniacki. Radwanska is the hottest player this fall, having won 11 of her last 12 matches, including Premier-level titles in Tokyo and Beijing. Zvonareva was runner-up in Tokyo, while Wozniacki had the worst results of the group this fall, losing in the third round of Tokyo and the quarterfinals of Beijing.

To give you a deeper insight into the mutual relationships of the players, here are their head-to-head statistics, with this year's records in brackets. Read more »