Spain’s number one female tennis player Carla Suarez Navarro and France’s top women’s player Alize Cornet have qualified for the eight-woman WTA Tournament of Champions singles tournament.
Suarez Navarro won her first career WTA title earlier this season in Oeiras. Her season achievements include a fourth Grand Slam quarterfinal appearance at the Roland Garros tournament and headline-grabbing wins over higher-ranked players such as Petra Kvitova, Angelique Kerber and Maria Sharapova.
Cornet qualified after winning her fourth WTA title at Katowice. Her season has been very fruitful with runner-up finishes at Dubai and Guangzhou. She also made a comeback in the world’s top 20 for the first time in more than five years two weeks ago.
Cornet was the only player since 2007 to beat top-ranked Serena Williams three times this season (Dubai, Wimbledon and Wuhan). The last time a player did this feat was Justine Henin.
The WTA Tournament of Champions will be staging its last event this year in Sofia, Bulgaria. This will be replaced by the $2.5 million WTA Elite Trophy in Zhuhai starting 2015.
The first four qualifiers have been named recently – Ekaterina Makarova, Dominika Cibulkova, Andrea Petkovic and Flavia Pennetta.
