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The Red Group is up for grabs as Ivanovic gets a win over Bouchard
SINGAPORE -- Ana Ivanovic earned her first win over Eugenie Bouchard with a 6-1, 6-3 victory to keep her chances of qualifying for the semifinals of the WTA Finals alive. With Simona Halep on the cusp of qualifying for the semifinals with her 6-0, 6-2 win over Serena Williams -- she qualifies if she wins a single game against Ivanovic on Friday or if Bouchard wins a game from Serena on Thursday -- the other qualification spot out of the Red Group will come down to Serena or Ivanovic.
No. 7 Ivanovic is making her first trip to the year-end championships since 2008. Winless against Bouchard in two matches, she took advantage of her experience in the unique event to get the better of the Canadian rookie. "I felt today I had advantage at different situation because it's her first Championships. Also, this is the first time that she's ranked higher than me in all of our matches, so pressure was on her. I really tried to use this as my advantage and tried to be aggressive and play free; it worked."
The History of the WTA Tour championships
1975
The WTA Championships were first sponsored by Virginia Slims, and in 1975, the tournament switched dates from October to April. Evert won her third Virginia Slims Championships title and $40,000 for defeating Martina Navratilova (pictured here).
1976
The round robin format began (two groups of four players, after first round elimination) and Australian Evonne Goolagong won.
1976
Australia Evonne Goolagong Cowney on the cover of SI during the Finals at LA Memorial Sports Arena.
1977
The tournament moves to Madison Square Garden and Chris Evert takes home the title.
1983
Evert at the Virginia Slims Championships at Madison Square Garden. Navratilova took home the title that year.
1992
No. 1 seed Monica Seles beats Navratilova 7-5, 6-3, 6-1 to win her third year-end title.
1992
Martina Navratilova was sad.
1995
Steffi Graf beat Anke Huber in five-sets (yes, the final was best-of-five for a few years) to win her fourth title.
1996
Gabriela Sabatini retired from the game at the 1996 WTA Finals.
1996
Kimiko Date Krumm also retired at the 1996 tournament. She would return to the tour years later and still plays at 43-years-old.
1999
Steffi Graf hung up her racket at the 1999 tournament and received...a gift.
1999
Lindsay Davenport and Martina Hingis met in the final for the second straight year and once again Davenport prevailed.
2000
Martina Hingis won her ninth title of the year, defeating Monica Seles in three sets.
2001
The Finals said goodbye to Madison Square Garden after a 22-year run and relocated to Munich, Germany.
2001
Serena Williams, making her tournament debut, wins the title after Lindsay Davenport withdraws before the final with a knee injury.
2001
An unhappy Davenport talks to reporters after withdrawing due to a knee injury she sustained in her previous match.
2002
Kim Clijsters stuns No. 1 Serena Williams, who had won three majors that year, to win her first WTA Finals title.
2002
The tournament moved back to America after a one-year stint in Munich, settling in Los Angeles.
2003
The WTA Finals has always served as a reunion of the game's legends.
2003
Clijsters and Hingis hanging out at the beach.
2003
Ever the stalwart, Martina Navratilova played doubles with Svetlana Kuznetsova
2003
Kim Clijsters beat Amelie Mauresmo in the final and won $1 million, the largest prize purse ever at a women's only sporting event at the time.
2004
The WTA Finals were sponsored by Porsche...
2004
...That's the only reason why this photo makes sense.
2004
17-year-old Maria Sharapova made her debut after winning Wimbledon that year.
2004
Sharapova went on to win her only WTA Finals title, beating Serena in three sets after trailing 0-4 in the third. She has not beaten Serena since.
2005
Amelie Mauresmo beats Mary Pierce in the first all-French final.
2006
Justine Henin wins her first WTA Finals title and finishes the year No. 1.
2007
In one of the most memorable finals every played at the event, Justine Henin beats Maria Sharapova 5-7, 7-5, 6-3.
2008
The tournament moves to Doha, Qatar for three years.
2008
The always combustible Vera Zvonareva made the final, but lost to Venus Williams 6-7 (5), 6-0, 6-2.
2008
It was Venus Williams' first year-end title.
2009
Serena and Venus Williams qualified for the event in both singles and doubles.
2009
But not in ping pong.
2009
Caroline Wozniacki came down with leg cramps.
2009
And in the first all-Williams final of the tournament, Serena came out on top.
2010
he event returned to Doha for the third and final time with a $4.55 million prize and No. 1 seed Caroline Wozniacki and No. 3 seed Kim Clijsters reached the final. Clijsters came out on top.
2010
Elena Dementieva stunned everyone by announcing her retirement.
2010
No one was prepared.
2010
Kim Clijsters would win her last WTA Final title.
2011
The tournament moves to Istanbul, Turkey for three years.
2011
In her tournament debut, Petra Kvitova wins the title without dropping a set and finishes the season at No. 2.
2012
For the first time in WTA history, eight different countries were represented at the Finals.
2012
73,072 fans came out to Sinan Erdem Arena for the tournament, the largest attendance since 2000.
2012
Serena Williams extended her win-streak at the event to 10 straight matches en route to the title.
2013
The final staging in Istanbul.
2013
Serena Williams won her fourth WTA Finals title, beating Li Na in three sets in the final.
Ivanovic rolled to a 5-0 lead before Bouchard was able to hold her serve to win a game, but the second set was more competitive than the scoreline would indicate. Bouchard was able to stay level with Ivanovic to 3-3 but was broken on her own double-fault in a protracted seventh game. Ivanovic did well to save four of five break points in the second set to keep Bouchard in check. Bouchard drops to 0-2 in round robin play.
The 20-year-old admitted after her opening loss to Halep that she felt rusty after late-season injuries ate into her practice time. During a coaching timeout on Wednesday she told her coach Nick Saviano that she shouldn't have tried playing the tournament. Bouchard hoped she could play herself into form this week but with the format pitting the top eight players against each other, she's been playing undercooked. "It's something I knew going in, so it's not so much of a surprise. But it's still disappointing, I guess," Bouchard said after the match on Wednesday.
Breaking down the Red Group Standings (After two rounds)
player | record | Sets won | games Played | Games Won | Win % |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Simona Halep | 2-0 | 4-0 | 30 | 26 | .867 |
Ana Ivanovic | 1-1 | 2-2 | 36 | 20 | .556 |
Serena Williams | 1-1 | 2-2 | 34 | 14 | .412 |
Eugenie Bouchard | 0-2 | 0-4 | 31 | 9 | .290 |
At the end of group play, the final standings will be determined (in order) by:
- Wins;
- Numbers of matches played;
- Head-to-head results, if only two players are tied
If three players are tied -- which could happen here if Bouchard beats Serena and Halep beats Ivanovic, leaving a three-way tie between Ivanovic, Serena and Bouchard -- then the final standings and player who advances will be determined by:
- The highest percentage of sets won; or
- The highest percentage of games won
Simona Halep hands Serena Williams worst loss since 1998
Even Ivanovic found herself swept up in the mathematics of her qualification prospects during her match. "At one point in my match today I started counting games, and I'm like, 'Why am I doing this?' Sometimes in a group [competition] that's why it's tough. You know what? I don't want to know. I want to go out there and play the best I can and fight for each game. In a group every game matters, and that's what I'm going to try to do."
Here's the order of play for Thursday, which sees Serena and Bouchard back in action:
[6] Agnieszka Radwanska vs. [8] Caroline Wozniacki
[2] Maria Sharapova vs. [3] Petra Kvitova
Not Before 7:30 pm
[1] Serena Williams vs. [5] Eugenie Bouchard
Contributor, SI.com Nguyen is a freelance writer for SI.com, providing full coverage of professional tennis both on and off the court. Her content has become a must-read for fans and insiders to stay up-to-date with a sport that rarely rests. She has appeared on radio and TV talk shows all over the world and is one of the co-hosts of No Challenges Remaining, a weekly podcast available on iTunes. Nguyen graduated from the University of California, Irvine in 1999 and received a law degree from the University of California, Davis in 2002. She lives in the Bay Area.