WTA Tournament of Champions was a women's season ending

tennis Tennis is a racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket that is strung with cord to strike a hollow rubber ball cov ...

tournament for players who have won one or more of the

WTA International tournaments The WTA International Tournaments was a category for professional tennis tournaments of the Women's Tennis Association from the 2009 WTA Tour until 2020, which replaced the previous Tier III and Tier IV categories. The winner of a WTA Internat ...

during the year but did not qualify for the

WTA Championships The WTA Finals (formerly known as the WTA Tour Championships or WTA Championships) is a tournament of the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) played annually at the end of the season. The event is uniquely reserved for players at the top of the WTA ...

. The Tournament of Champions took place from 2009 until 2014; it was then replaced by a new format year-end tournament: the WTA Elite Trophy.

History

It debuted in 2009 at the

Bali Bali () is a province of Indonesia and the westernmost of the Lesser Sunda Islands. East of Java and west of Lombok, the province includes the island of Bali and a few smaller neighbouring islands, notably Nusa Penida, Nusa Lembongan, and ...

International Convention Centre on November 4–8 and was a part of the

2009 WTA Tour 9 (nine) is the natural number following and preceding . Evolution of the Arabic digit In the beginning, various Indians wrote a digit 9 similar in shape to the modern closing question mark without the bottom dot. The Kshatrapa, Andhra and ...

. The first edition of the tournament featured a 12-woman round robin singles format (four groups of three players, then single-elimination semifinals and final), and offered both US$600,000, €500,000 in prize money and a chance to earn a €1-million bonus for qualified players who won three or more international tournaments. For its second edition, the tournament featured an eight-woman draw with players having only one opportunity to reach the semifinals, where the remaining four women would compete for the first, second, third, and fourth place prizes. The event replaced the

Commonwealth Bank Tennis Classic The Commonwealth Bank Tennis Classic was a tennis tournament on the WTA Tour held in Bali, Indonesia in 2007 and 2008. During the period 1994–2006 it was known as Wismilak International, organized successively in Surabaya (1994–1997), Kuala Lu ...

in Bali (a former Tier III tournament). For the

2009 File:2009 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The vertical stabilizer of Air France Flight 447 is pulled out from the Atlantic Ocean; Barack Obama becomes the first African American to become President of the United States; Protests ...

edition, the 10 highest-ranked players who had captured at least one International-level tournament during the year and who were not participating in singles at the year-end

WTA Tour Championships WTA may refer to: Organizations * Washington Trails Association * Whatcom Transportation Authority *Waskahegan Trail Association, the management board for the Waskahegan Trail *Water Transit Authority, former name of the San Francisco Bay Area Wa ...

– Doha 2009 qualified for the event, along with two wildcards. For the

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

edition, only the top-8 ranked women qualified for the event, with the tournament having the possibility to replace competitors with wildcards of their choice. The WTA Tournament of Champions took place in Bali from the inaugural edition in 2009 until 2011. Since 2012 the tournament was held in

Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and h ...

, Bulgaria. Since 2015, the WTA Tournament of Champions was replaced by a new format: the WTA Elite Trophy. The singles competition will feature a four-group round-robin format consisting of players ranked from ninth to 19th in the world plus one wildcard; followed by the semifinals and final. The tournament will also include a doubles tournament featuring six teams split into two groups followed by a final.

Venues

Past results

Singles

References

External links

* {{WTA International tournaments Tennis tournaments in Bulgaria WTA Tour Tennis tournaments in Indonesia Hard court tennis tournaments Indoor tennis tournaments Sports competitions in Sofia Sport in Bali Recurring sporting events established in 2009 Recurring sporting events disestablished in 2014