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 »

Victoria Azarenka was the last player to come to Istanbul because she was occupied by winning the title in Luxembourg. Remember, the Belarusian was the only one missing in the glamorous player photo shoot introducing the luxurious tournament with the prize money of $4,900,000. The world No.4 continued her Luxembourg form (she didn't lose a set en route to the trophy) and at the WTA Championships she recorded two solid victories to reach her first semifinals in her third appearance at the tournament.

After dominating Samantha Stosur in her first round-robin match 6-2 6-2, with the same score Azarenka took out French Open champion Li Na to become the first certain member of the Istanbul final four. The fifth-ranked Li earned zero break points against Azarenka and hit 22 unforced errors more than her opponent (39 to 17).

Li was successful in her first match of the tournament, beating Maria Sharapova 7-6(4) 6-4. (photo: sr_cranks)

At the WTA Championships Victoria Azarenka continued her dominance over Samantha Stosur, not giving the Australian even one set in all their five meetings.

The seventh-ranked Stosur excitingly closed the opening day of the WTA Championships with her first win over Maria Sharapova in their ten meetings. Wednesday's order of play put the Stosur vs. Azarenka match first, and whether Stosur was emotionally and physically tired from her yesterday's accomplishment or Azarenka was too good, Azarenka crushed Stosur 6-2 6-2, with the Australian showing brief resistance only at the end of this White Group match, by saving three match points. (photo: sr_cranks)

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 »

It was not meant to be that we get two first-time WTA titlists this weekend – Dominika Cibulkova did it, Monica Niculescu did not, and instead world No.3 Victoria Azarenka of Belarus comfortably won her eighth career title and third this year, after Miami and Marbella.

The top-seeded Azarenka had a straightforward 6-2 6-2 victory over Niculescu in final of the BGL BNP Paribas Luxembourg Open, but she had strategy prepared for the Romanian:

Monica has a unique game, a really different style. You really have to dig deep and be patient against her, but you also have to be aggressive. If you stand there and just dig the balls back, she can beat you. So I just tried to stay aggressive and fight for every point and I'm happy how it turned out.

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