Time for the Year End Championships for the WTA

Information on the championships can be found on the official website here....

OFFICIAL WEBSITE



Here are the two groups for the Round Robin stage.

YELLOW GROUP
(1) Justine Henin (BEL)
(3) Jelena Jankovic (SRB)
(5) Serena Williams (USA)
(7) Anna Chakvetadze (RUS)

RED GROUP
(2) Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS)
(4) Ana Ivanovic (SRB)
(6) Maria Sharapova (RUS)
(8) Daniela Hantuchova (SVK)

Justine in a dress :wub: :wub: :wub: :wub:

:dohh:


roflmao the smallest one there is 2000 points ahead of all the other players there and missed the AO as well :bow: :bow: :bow: :bow:

:lol: It's always a strange thing seeing justine in anything outside of her tennis gear.... but she looks okay..... but Ana looks great , Anna C, not too
bad.... They do have the men in suits normally for these shoots so why didn't they have the women in suits......(just thinking out loud).... :)

Wow :) Ivanovic is a relatively big girl....I wonder why she hasn't developed a killer serve... she has the body for it ..unlike say daniela who is on the more skinny side...

was that a group shot, or were they all pasted together??

The Cheat looks like a drag queen...:lol:

black and white suits the usually dour looking kuznetsova.

The WTA site has a short film clip of the photo shoot! :)

http://www.sonyericssonwtatour.com/2/multimedia/

I notice they didn't interview Grumpy... roflmao

I like the way the music behind the video sounds like demo tunes that used to be used on old Yamaha keyboards.... ;)

And if we have Grumpy, who's Snow White and the other six dwarfs? :P

Anyone know what time the matches start?

Snow White = Justine :halo: and her 7 dwarfs :P

6pm Madrid time, 5pm UK :)

The YEC at the moment seems to be a joke.There arent that many spectators and the matches havent been living up to promise.Not surprisingly Henin is making a sweep of things and should take the title quite easily. :unsure:

Other than than that this event is kind of lacking prestige and hype.It promised so much but is delivering so little. :angry:

I hope it can get better :(

Agreed, this a real snooze fest. The moment Serena went out it was 100% clear Justine was gonna win, and even before it was pretty obvious. This Championships is a real poor show for Women's Tennis, especially when it's supposed to highlight the best of the best. I think the long season is partly the reason, the sooner they lop a month or two off it the better. Hopefully the men's masters cup will be better.

One highlight for me, has been realising i reall do like Maria Sharapova afterall! :P

And i swear to god if Justine wins this, i will be tempted to kill myself, i know she's good, but i just HATE her! :)

lol, well Henin does deserve to win as she's played so good throughout the year and in the tournament, but I'd rather someone else won it. It'd just be nice to have a change.

Also, no one I know who doesn't really follow tennis has ever heard of her. So in that sense I'm not sure she's good for the game; tennis, like every other sport, needs its superstars to help promote the game.

Jankovic just retired I see, these championships get more and more boring by the second. Hopefully the Sharapova-Ivanovic match will be better.

Agreed. I put the tennis on last night on the big screem in the pub i work in, and not one of the regulars recognised Justine. They were all like 'Wheres the Williams sisters'!, Wheres Maria Sharapova'! I got the impression that Jujus mauling of Bartoli didnt romt them to watch the tennis again today

:yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo:

Please win Justine, please win :pray:

Aah but anyone who knows about tennis would have B)

Well, our regulars arent the kind of blokes who would appreciate the game anyway i admit. I bet showing them Ivanovic play Sharapova tonight will garner their interest a lot more, especially if shes wearing that dress again ;)

:rolleyes:

As ever ......... your original point was moot/ :bs: !

Gimme something new Liam ........... please

To be honest Justine is not as well known by non-tennis followers in the UK mainly because she is yet to win Wimbledon. All the non-tennis followers know about tennis here is who wins Wimbledon mainly....

In France she is massive due to her 4 RG wins but I'd imagine someone like Sharapova isn't quite as big over there, yet here she is in the UK as she has a Wimbledon crown to her name.

In the mens game ask a non tennis fan in the UK who Gustavo Kuerten is and I bet they have no idea. Yet ask them who Goran Ivanisevic is and they will generally have a good idea. Who has more slams?

There is also the media circus effect, one thing Justine doesn't really need I feel. She does her talking on the court.

Exactly Gav!

If i did kill myself you would feel really bad! ;)

But good thing i'm not going too cause Maria will beat her down in the final! :P

Would I? :unsure: :hmm:



































:nope:












:D

The YEC has been woefully short on quality this year. I mean justine and maria have been very commanding and impressive with their victories, but not keen contests at all. Not their fault at all, but just the way this YEC has panned out. Has been dull to say the least.

It's a shame Venus couldnt play due to her recurring illness. I feel she's the one player who's still toe to toe with Justine, and i feel she would've been her main challenger here. However, the current field are just several levels below Justine :shrug:

I think it was more interesting last year because the number one ranking was at stake too! :)

I'm pleased Dani won tonight too... :wub:

Sveta and Jelena need to take a hard look at themselves... :(

Svetlana and Jelena have played far too much tennis this year. I have a horrible feeling Jelena could still be burnt out next year too. I cant believe she's played over 90 matches this year :yikes: :rolleyes:

The tournament has just shown how exhausted everyone is. That's why Sharapova is beating everyone, because everyone's knackered roflmao

I think you are absolutely spot on dl! :ok:

I am so frustrated being a Jelena fan, I know she is such a good player but I just wish she wouldn't keep playing so many tournaments... :( :rolleyes:

I know what you mean choka, she has hardly had any adequate time off at all this year. She had a little break after Wimbledon but that's it basically. I really feel she could've reached a GS final this year, but her schedule takes away her energy when she needs it the most at the majors. She has said she'll cut down her schedule, but i'm still guessing she'll still play a lot of tournaments. It's hard to break your scheduling when you're so used to it.

However she has to look back at this YEC and say to herself that she was a complete no-show, because she was so exhausted :shrug:

Yeah again I agree, she will hopefully cut down but I think she will play too many. She needs to sit down and plan a sensible schedule... :shrug:

Ive been saying the same thing about Petrova for years, but she still plays a stupid schedule :(

Sheeeeeesh! Uni life is so hectic! B)

Does anyone have a live link thingy for today? :party:

http://sayan.freehostia.com/zeesports.html

I'm not watching it - my heart and nerves can't take it!

:(

I love you and Justine! :wub:

I guess the challengers to Justine's dominance couldn't hang with her all the way...... :hug: what a gutsy woman... The money bit is great..and all, but 5 million plus may change over time... Given the fact that even Sharapova earned a cool 23 million dollars(forbes) from tennis related
exploits last year, that is just okay... Sharapova may still earn more than Justine overall this year...

But what really counts her is the tennis...and the love of the game... 10 hard earned titles, unassuming simply professional.... Justine has been superlative this season, and winning YEC is only the icing on a well deserved cake. I don't know how 2008 will pan out given all the young girls trying to get a piece of the pie... but will leave that alone for now..

Personally, at the start of the year.... I thought with regards to her divorce, she will either be sick ..or like she does so well, focus her energies on her beloved game...I'm glad she chose the latter...

What can I say....Kudo's to a thoroughly hardworking, gutsy and talented tennis champion.... :ok:

Apart from that final,what a dismal tournament :angry:
Full Marks to Justine she really plays great tennis.Her personality may suck but she is plays the best tennis at the moment out there.

Congrats on Masha for reviving herself.It was a bit sad to actually see her struggling with her breathing up there and thats where she lost the match.

:ok:

roflmao roflmao

Could it have been Justine just had "lucky shots" or really, all Justine had to do was "show up"!

:lmaao: :lmaao:

I really don't think it's that bad... :rolleyes:

She is coming round slowly.I suppose its all the mental things that happened to her and her family that was estranged and we cant blame her for it,but she is living the dream.Something many of us would love to have. :ok: