WTA TOUR CHAMPIONSHIPS

The 'WTA Tour Championships' is a tennis tournament played annually at the end of the season for the top-ranked players on the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) tour. The event's current sponsored name is the 'Sony Ericsson Championships'.
The championships were held for the first time in August 1971 in Houston, Texas as one of a series of tournaments sponsored by Virginia Slims. This event, however, was staged before the end of the series. In 1972, the tournament was moved to Boca Raton, Florida (USA) as a climax event at the end of the series. From 1972 to 1974, the event was held in October, before switching to March from 1975 until 1986. The WTA then decided to adopt a January-to-November playing season, and so the event was switched to being held at the end of each year. As a consequence, there were two championships held in 1986. The event was held in Los Angeles, California from 1974 to 1976 before moving to Madison Square Garden in New York City in 1977. With the exception of a one-year move to Oakland, California in 1978, the Championships remained at the Garden until 2000. The event then briefly moved to Munich, Germany in 2001. More recently, it moved back to Los Angeles, California from 2002 to 2005. The 2006 edition was held in Madrid, Spain, which will be the site of the 2007 tournament as well. Doha, Qatar will host 2008, 2009 and 2010 editions before passing the flag to Istanbul, Turkey which is expected to host the 2011, 2012 and 2013 WTA Championships. ^{[1] [2]
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From 1971-1978, the event was known as the 'Virginia Slims Championships'. When Avon took over as the tour sponsor from 1979–1982, the event was known as the 'Avon Championships'. Virginia Slims returned as the tour sponsor in 1983 and the event name reverted to the Virginia Slims Championships. It remained that way until 1994 when Virginia Slims ended their sponsorship of the WTA Tour. In 1995, without a tour sponsor, the event was simply referred to as the 'WTA Tour Championships'. Since then, the tournament has been named after other event sponsors. From 1996 to 2000, it was called the 'Chase Championships'. In 2001, it was the 'Sanex Championships' while in 2002, it was the 'Home Depot Championships'. In 2003 and 2004, the event name was once again the WTA Tour Championships. Since 2005, with Sony Ericsson taking over as tour sponsor, the event has been called the 'Sony Ericsson Championships'.
From 1984–1998, the final of the championships was a best-of-five-set match – making it the only tournament on the women's tour to have a best-of-five-set match at any round of the competition. In 1999, the final reverted to being a best-of-three-set match, as had been the case from 1971–1983.
The WTA Tour Championships are generally considered to be the fifth most prestigious event on the women's tour after the four Grand Slam tournaments.

Contents

Past Results

Singles

Doubles Champions

See also

External links

Past Results

Singles

Year	Venue	Champion	Runner-up	Score in final
1971	Houston	'Billie Jean King	Kerry Melville	6-4, 4-6, 6-1
1972	Boca Raton	'Chris Evert	Kerry Melville	7-5, 6-4
1973	Boca Raton	'Chris Evert	Nancy Richey-Gunter	6-3, 6-3
1974	Los Angeles	'Evonne Goolagong	Chris Evert	6-3, 6-4
1975	Los Angeles	'Chris Evert	Martina Navrátilová	6-4, 6-2
1976	Los Angeles	'Evonne Goolagong-Cawley	Chris Evert	6-3, 5-7, 6-3
1977	New York	'Chris Evert	Sue Barker	2-6, 6-1, 6-1
1978	Oakland	'Martina Navrátilová	Evonne Goolagong-Cawley	7-65-0, 6-4
1979	New York	'Martina Navrátilová	Tracy Austin	6-3, 3-6, 6-2
1980	New York	'Tracy Austin	Martina Navrátilová	6-2, 2-6, 6-2
1981	New York	'Martina Navrátilová	Andrea Jaeger	6-3, 7-6³
1982	New York	'Sylvia Hanika	Martina Navrátilová	1-6, 6-3, 6-4
1983	New York	'Martina Navrátilová	Chris Evert-Lloyd	6-2, 6-0
1984	New York	'Martina Navrátilová	Chris Evert-Lloyd	6-3, 7-5, 6-1
1985	New York	'Martina Navrátilová	Helena Suková	6-3, 7-5, 6-4
1986 (1)	New York	'Martina Navrátilová	Hana Mandlíková	6-2, 6-0, 3-6, 6-1
1986 (2)	New York	'Martina Navrátilová	Steffi Graf	7-66, 6-3, 6-2
1987	New York	'Steffi Graf	Gabriela Sabatini	4-6, 6-4, 6-0, 6-4
1988	New York	'Gabriela Sabatini	Pam Shriver	7-5, 6-2, 6-2
1989	New York	'Steffi Graf	Martina Navrátilová	6-4, 7-5, 2-6, 6-2
1990	New York	'Monica Seles	Gabriela Sabatini	6-4, 5-7, 3-6, 6-4, 6-2
1991	New York	'Monica Seles	Martina Navrátilová	6-4, 3-6, 7-5, 6-0
1992	New York	'Monica Seles	Martina Navrátilová	7-5, 6-3, 6-1
1993	New York	'Steffi Graf	Arantxa Sanchez Vicario	6-1, 6-4, 3-6, 6-1
1994	New York	'Gabriela Sabatini	Lindsay Davenport	6-3, 6-2, 6-4
1995	New York	'Steffi Graf	Anke Huber	6-1, 2-6, 6-1, 4-6, 6-3
1996	New York	'Steffi Graf	Martina Hingis	6-3, 4-6, 6-0, 4-6, 6-0
1997	New York	'Jana Novotná	Mary Pierce	7-64, 6-2, 6-3
1998	New York	'Martina Hingis	Lindsay Davenport	7-5, 6-4, 4-6, 6-2
1999	New York	'Lindsay Davenport	Martina Hingis	6-4, 6-2
2000	New York	'Martina Hingis	Monica Seles	6-75, 6-4, 6-4
2001	Munich	'Serena Williams	Lindsay Davenport	walkover
2002	Los Angeles	'Kim Clijsters	Serena Williams	7-5, 6-3
2003	Los Angeles	'Kim Clijsters	Amélie Mauresmo	6-2, 6-0
2004	Los Angeles	'Maria Sharapova	Serena Williams	4-6, 6-2, 6-4
2005	Los Angeles	'Amélie Mauresmo	Mary Pierce	5-7, 7-6³, 6-4
2006	Madrid	'Justine Henin-Hardenne	Amélie Mauresmo	6-4, 6-3
2007	Madrid

Doubles Champions

Year	Champions	Runners-up	Score
1971	'Rosemary Casals Billie Jean King	Judy Tegart-Dalton Françoise Durr	6-3, 1-6, 6-2
1972	''no doubles played''
1973	'Rosemary Casals Margaret Court	Françoise Durr Betty Stöve	6-2, 6-4
1974	'Rosemary Casals Billie Jean King	Françoise Durr Betty Stöve	6-1, 6-72-5, 7-5
1975	''no doubles played''
1976	''no doubles played''
1977	''no doubles played''
1978	''no doubles played''
1979	'Françoise Durr Betty Stöve	Sue Barker Ann Kiyomura	7-6, 7-6
1980	'Billie Jean King Martina Navrátilová	Rosemary Casals Wendy Turnbull	6-3, 4-6, 6-3
1981	'Martina Navrátilová Pam Shriver	Barbara Potter Sharon Walsh	6-0, 7-66
1982	'Martina Navrátilová Pam Shriver	Kathy Jordan Anne Smith	6-4, 6-3
1983	'Martina Navrátilová Pam Shriver	Claudia Kohde-Kilsch Eva Pfaff	7-5, 6-2
1984	'Martina Navrátilová Pam Shriver	Jo Durie Ann Kiyomura	6-3, 6-1
1985	'Martina Navrátilová Pam Shriver	Claudia Kohde-Kilsch Helena Suková	6-74, 6-4, 7-65
1986 (1)	'Hana Mandlíková Wendy Turnbull	Claudia Kohde-Kilsch Helena Suková	6-4, 6-74, 6-3
1986 (2)	'Martina Navrátilová Pam Shriver	Claudia Kohde-Kilsch Helena Suková	1-6, 6-1, 6-1
1987	'Martina Navrátilová Pam Shriver	Claudia Kohde-Kilsch Helena Suková	6-1, 6-1
1988	'Martina Navrátilová Pam Shriver	Larisa Savchenko Natalia Zvereva	6-3, 6-4
1989	'Martina Navrátilová Pam Shriver	Larisa Savchenko Natalia Zvereva	6-3, 6-2
1990	'Kathy Jordan Elizabeth Smylie	Mercedes Paz Arantxa Sánchez Vicario	7-64, 6-4
1991	'Martina Navrátilová Pam Shriver	Gigi Fernández Jana Novotná	4-6, 7-5, 6-4
1992	'Arantxa Sánchez Vicario Helena Suková	Jana Novotná Larisa Savchenko-Neiland	7-64, 6-1
1993	'Gigi Fernández Natalia Zvereva	Jana Novotná Larisa Savchenko-Neiland	6-3, 7-5
1994	'Gigi Fernández Natasha Zvereva	Jana Novotná Arantxa Sánchez Vicario	6-3, 6-74, 6-3
1995	'Jana Novotná Arantxa Sánchez Vicario	Gigi Fernández Natasha Zvereva	6-2, 6-1
1996	'Lindsay Davenport Mary Joe Fernández	Jana Novotná Arantxa Sánchez Vicario	6-3, 6-2
1997	'Lindsay Davenport Jana Novotná	Alexandra Fusai Nathalie Tauziat	6-75, 6-3, 6-2
1998	'Lindsay Davenport Natasha Zvereva	Alexandra Fusai Nathalie Tauziat	6-76, 7-5, 6-3
1999	'Martina Hingis Anna Kournikova	Arantxa Sánchez-Vicario Larisa Savchenko-Neiland	6-4, 6-4
2000	'Martina Hingis Anna Kournikova	Nicole Arendt Manon Bollegraf	6-2, 6-3
2001	'Lisa Raymond Rennae Stubbs	Cara Black Elena Likhovtseva	7-5, 3-6, 6-3
2002	'Elena Dementieva Janette Husárová	Cara Black Elena Likhovtseva	4-6, 6-4, 6-3
2003	'Virginia Ruano Pascual Paola Suárez	Kim Clijsters Ai Sugiyama	6-4, 3-6, 6-3
2004	'Nadia Petrova Meghann Shaughnessy	Cara Black Rennae Stubbs	7-5, 6-2
2005	'Lisa Raymond Samantha Stosur	Cara Black Rennae Stubbs	6-75, 7-5, 6-4
2006	'Lisa Raymond Samantha Stosur	Cara Black Liezel Huber	3-6, 6-3, 6-3

See also

★ Tennis Masters Cup

★ 2007 WTA Tour

External links

★ Official site

★ 2006 Sony Ericsson Championships

★ tenniscorner.net page on the WTA Tour Championships

★ tennislovers.com page on the WTA Tour Championships