About WTA Elite Trophy
The WTA Elite Trophy is a year-end professional tennis tournament for female tennis players on the WTA Tour. The tournament is the successor to the event WTA Tournament of Champions.
The tournament was played for the first time in 2015.
Format
The tournament takes place at the end of the season in both singles and doubles format. The singles event comprises of twelve players, ranked from 9th to 19th in the WTA rankings and one wildcard. The players are then grouped into four groups with the group winners proceeding to the semi-finals.
The doubles event features six teams grouped into a couple of groups with the group winners contesting the final.
In case of a tie between two teams or players, head to head record is used to settle it. In case of a three-way tie, the percentage of games and sets won are taken into consideration.
Venue
The 2019 WTA Elite will be held at the Hengqin Tennis Centre in Zhuhai, China. The stadium has a hard surface and has a capacity of 5,000 seats.
Past Winners
A number of big names has already won the WTA Elite Trophy in its short history. US star Venus Williams took home the women’s singles title in the inaugural edition in 2015. Williams beat Karolina Pliskova 7-5, 7-6(8-6). In 2016, Petra Kvitova of Czech Republic won the singles category when she beat Elina Svitolina 6-4, 6-2. The defending champion of the tournament is Julia Gorges of Germany. The German beat CoCo Vandeweghe 7-5, 6-1.
A host of Chinese players have won the doubles category at the WTA Elite Trophy. Liang Chen and Wang Yafan won it in 2015 beating the Spanish pair of Anabel Medina Garrigues and Arantxa Parra Santonja 6-4, 6-3. The Turkish-Chinese pairing of Ipek Soylu and Xu Yifan won it in 2016. In 2017, Duan Yingying and Han Xinyun won the doubles title.
Prize Money
The total prize money for the 2018 edition of the tournament is $2,419,844. The champion of the singles format wins $500,00 whereas the doubles winner gets $21,509.
