By Lim Yong Teck/Red Sports
Serena Williams of the USA lifting the Billie Jean King trophy during the victory ceremony of the WTA Finals. Williams achieved her third straight WTA singles title when she beat Simona Halep of Romania 6–3, 6–0 in the final. (Photo 1 © Lim Yong Teck/Red Sports)
Singapore Indoor Stadium, October 20-26, 2014 — The BNP Paribas Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) Finals was staged in Singapore for the first time, making the country the first in the Asia Pacific region to host the event.
Top-ranked Serena Williams achieved a WTA Finals three-peat when she defeated Simona Halep 6–3, 6–0 in her third straight final. Halep, in her first final appearance, had handed Williams her worst loss in 16 years during the group stage, winning 6–0, 6–2.
Williams has never lost to the same player twice at the WTA tournament. The victory is Williams’ third three-peat; she has three-peats at the 2002, 2003 and 2004 Miami Masters and the 2012, 2013 and 2014 US Open. Williams’ result makes her the third player in history to win a WTA title five or more times, tying her title count with former world number one, Steffi Graf of Germany.
Sania Mirza of India and Cara Black of Zimbabwe won their first WTA Finals doubles title together when they defeated defending champions Hsieh Su-Wei of Chinese Taipei and Peng Shuai of China 6–1, 6–0 in the final. Mirza and Black were making their first appearance as a pair at the tournament. Hsieh and Peng had held a perfect 12–0 doubles final record prior to the match.
In the WTA Rising Stars final, Mónica Puig of Croatia defeated Zheng Saisai of China 6–4, 6–3 to clinch the title.
In the WTA Future Stars event, Karman Kaur Thandi of India defeated Chinese Taipei’s Huang Hsiang-Wen 6–4, 6–2 to clinch the U16 title. In the U14 final, Thasaporn Naklo of Thailand overcame a loss in the opening set to beat Yuki Ando of Japan 5–7, 6–3, 10–4.
Here is a photo story of the week long event. Enjoy. 🙂
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