WTA

• Season-ending Championships commences Tuesday in Doha

  
  

  Doha, Qatar (Sports Network) - The WTA Tour's season-ending Sony Ericsson Championships will get underway with a trio of round-robin matches Tuesday in Doha.

  The 2008 edition of this event will commence with an all-Russian bout between sixth-seeded Svetlana Kuznetsova and eighth-seeded Vera Zvonareva. Kuznetsova is a former U.S. Open champion and former U.S. and French Open runner-up.

  The second match on Day 1 will pit world No. 1 Jelena Jankovic against fourth- seeded fellow Serb Ana Ivanovic, a former top-ranked performer. Jankovic was this year's U.S. Open runner-up, while Ivanovic captured the French Open and reached the final at the Australian Open.

  Tuesday's nightcap will see second-seeded Russian Dinara Safina take on seventh-seeded Wimbledon champ Venus Williams. Safina was this year's French Open and Olympic runner-up, while the American Williams captured her second straight Wimbledon championship this past summer.

  This week's exclusive eight-woman field has been split up into two four- players groups. The White Group features Jankovic, Ivanovic, Kuznetsova and Zvonareva, while the Maroon Group boasts Safina, third-seeded U.S. Open champion and Wimbledon runner-up Serena Williams, fifth-seeded Olympic gold medalist Elena Dementieva and Venus Williams. Jankovic has already clinched the year-end No. 1 spot, for the first time in her career.

  Serena is the only former Championships titlist (2001) in this year's field. She was also the runner-up in 2002 and 2004.

  Round-robin tennis will be the order of the day from Tuesday through Friday, with the top-two players from each group advancing to Saturday's semifinals and the semifinal victors moving into Sunday's finale on the hardcourts at Khalifa Tennis Complex.

  Former world No. 1 Justine Henin outlasted fellow former top-ranked star Maria Sharapova in last year's Championships final, but neither woman is competing this week, as Henin has since retired and the reigning Aussie Open champion Sharapova is sidelined with a shoulder injury. Henin had won the last two titles at this prestigious tournament.

  The winner of this lucrative $4.55 million event will collect at least $1.34 million. This tournament was held in Madrid last year.

  11/03 12:30:45 ET