Caroline Wozniacki qualifies for WTA Championships
World No. 2 Caroline Wozniacki has become the first singles player to qualify for the WTA Tour Championships in Doha this October.
“Today I officially qualified for the year end championships in Doha! First one to qualify! Very excited!” Wozniacki has tweeted.
Wozniacki’s official qualification for the Tour Championships comes after reaching the quarter-finals of the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo today and is the culmination of a standout year for the Dane, who has already accumulated four WTA titles for the season.
Indeed, such has been her success that in the absence of injured world No. 1 Serena Williams at the US Open, Wozniacki entered the tournament as top seed and with the chance to claim the top ranking from the American should she manage to improve on her 2009 runner-up finish by winning the title in 2010.
In the end, she fell short as Vera Zvonareva played the more confident tennis of the two in the semi-finals to book her place in her second consecutive Grand Slam final.
While the majors have so far proved the stumbling block for Wozniacki, at just 20 years of age she still has plenty of time on her side to rectify that situation in the remainder of her career.
For now though, her focus will surely be on claiming the most prestigious title on offer outside the Grand Slams, that at the WTA Tour Championships at the second time of asking.
Few who watched last year’s staging of the event would underestimate her determination to do so. After qualifying for the tournament for the first time in her career, Wozniacki reached the semi-finals (where injury forced her retirement against eventual champion Williams), after fighting through severe cramping to win her round-robin match against Zvonareva.
The eight players who have earned the most ranking points for the season qualify for the WTA Tour Championships, with Serena currently sitting in second place behind Wozniacki but yet to officially qualify for the event.
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