Doubles team of Gisela Dulko and Flavia Pennetta will have a chance to defend their WTA Championships title from Doha by becoming the third doubles partnership to qualify for the year-end event, which will take place in Istanbul this year.

Dulko and Pennetta won their first Grand Slam title this year at the Australian Open and recently they played two Premier finals: Tokyo and Beijing. Also, they held the No.1 doubles ranking between them for eight months.

One more team can qualify in doubles, Victoria Azarenka and Maria Kirilenko or Vania King and Yaroslava Shvedova. Kveta Peschke and Katarina Srebotnik and Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond are already in.

In singles there is also one spot left, which will be taken by either Agnieszka Radwanska or Marion Bartoli. Already qualified are: Caroline Wozniacki, Maria Sharapova, Petra Kvitova, Victoria Azarenka, Li Na, Vera Zvonareva and Samantha Stosur.

Additional info: Pennetta recently at the China Open became only the second woman in history who defeated No.1 players in both singles and doubles on the same day. (photos: Ralf Reinecke)

If you visit Maria Sharapova’s official website you will see some new Nike clothes being advertised, and among them is a V-neck dress in the shades ranging from turquoise to blue/gray which I expect the Russian to wear at the TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships in Istanbul, Turkey, starting October 25.

The dress features asymmetrical lines and pleats on the skirt and a yellow Nike logo on the chest.

The official name of the item is Nike Women's Winter Maria Rival Knit Dress and it retails at $110.

Vera Zvonareva and Samantha Stosur have occupied the sixth and seventh spot in the draw of the $4,900,000 TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships, which means that only one more player can qualifier for the singles competition and that will be either Agnieszka Radwanska or Marion Bartoli.

In order for Bartoli to qualify, she would need to win both Osaka and Moscow and Radwanska would have to lose before the quarterfinals of Moscow. The player who doesn’t take the eighth spot will join Andrea Petkovic as an alternate.

This will be Zvonareva’s fifth time to play the elite year-end Championships, while Stosur played last year for the first time.

Besides the two new additions to the draw, Caroline Wozniacki, Maria Sharapova, Petra Kvitova, Victoria Azarenka and Li Na had already qualified.

For the past three years the prestigious event was held in Doha, and this year it will take place in Istanbul for the first time. The 2010 champion was Kim Clijsters, whose injuries have prevented her for playing since August. (photos: sr_cranks)

This season Li Na became the first Asian to win a Grand Slam, at the Australian Open she became the first Asian Grand Slam finalist, the Chinese 29-year-old also equaled the highest ranking ever for an Asian player in June and now she became the first player from her country to qualify for the $4,900,000 season-ending Championships, which will be held in Istanbul, Turkey, October 25-30.

Three more berths in the singles field are left in Istanbul, as Caroline Wozniacki, Maria Sharapova, Petra Kvitova and Victoria Azarenka have already qualified. Azarenka, the second seed at this week’s China Open, retired from the tournament in the third round against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova with right foot injury. (photo: © Neal Trousdale)

The second edition of the $600,000 Commonwealth Bank Tournament of Champions in Bali, the last tournament of the WTA season, will feature up-and-coming stars, but also established players including Grand Slam champion Ana Ivanovic.

To qualify for Bali and its tropical fun a player had to win an International-level event during the season and be one of the six highest-ranked players who did not qualify for the WTA Championships.

Here’s the 2010 Bali field, including one International-level title a player has won in 2010:

Li Na – Birmingham
Aravane Rezai – Bastad (won the Bali title last year with Marion Bartoli retiring in tears after losing the first set 7-5 in the final)
Yanina Wickmayer – Auckland
Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova - Monterrey
Ana Ivanovic – Linz
Alisa Kleybanova - Kuala Lumpur
Daniela Hantuchova (wildcard)
Kimiko Date Krumm (wildcard)

This year there will be no round-robin format at Bali and thus all the players have received a bye in the first round. Li, Date Krumm, Pavlyuchenkova and Ivanovic are in the top half of the draw, Hantuchova, Wickmayer, Kleybanova and Rezai are in the bottom half.

What do you think of the Bali tournament being scheduled to take place after the WTA Championships? Wouldn't it be better to finalize the season with the WTA Championships? I feel that the new Commonwealth Bank Tournament of Champions is decreasing the feeling of the elite and grand ending to the season that the WTA Championships are bringing. (photos via Commonwealth Bank Tournament of Champions)