2009 WTA Tour Championships - Groupings

Groupings

The stellar eight-woman line-up includes four players who have been No.1, three Grand Slam champions, and four who've been to at least one major final. Two of the field made their Top 10 debuts this season and are at the championships for the first time. Between them, they pocketed 21 of the 53 titles that were on offer during this landmark 'Roadmap' season. As last year, the competitors have been divided into two groups named for the colors of the Qatari flag. The White group comprises No.1 seed Dinara Safina, No.4 seed Caroline Wozniacki, No.6 seed Victoria Azarenka and No.8 seed Jelena Janković. The Maroon Group is made up of No.2 seed Serena Williams, No.3 seed Svetlana Kuznetsova, No.5 seed Elena Dementieva and No.7 seed Venus Williams. Last year's runner-up, Vera Zvonareva, and Agnieszka Radwańska wait in the wings as alternates.

At the White Group featured more fresh-faced players than the other group with none of them having won a Grand Slam. Each player's respective head to head records against one another is as follows: Dinara Safina is 8-4, Caroline Wozniacki is 1-5, Victoria Azarenka is 4-8 and Jelena Janković is 8-4. With Dinara Safina leading the group, she has a decent head-to-head with each player she is 1-0 against Wozniacki, with their only meeting coming from the Mutua Madrileña Madrid Open finals with Safina winning 6-2 6-4, She also has a very good record against Azarenka leading 4-1 with her only loss to Azarenka coming from this year's Indian Wells Open. They have also played 3 setters in their last 3 meetings. However Safina's record against Janković is 3-3 an even record with Janković winning their last meeting in the finals of Cincinnati 6-4 6-2. The next head-to-head features the two newcomers Azarenka and Wozniacki, which Azarenka has a slight lead of 2-1, with, winning their last two meetings. Like Safina, Janković has a good record against Wozniacki and Azarenka, she is 2-0 against Wozniacki, both matches having an interesting scoreline due to fact that Janković lost the first set in both meetings but eventually won the match. Janković is also 3-1 against Azarenka with Janković winning their last three matches and Azarenka's win dating back to 2006 in Miami.

The Maroon Group features more accomplished and veteran players with all of them reaching a Grand Slam final and 3 of them, aside from Dementieva, have won a Grand Slam at least twice. In their respective records reigning Australian Open and Wimbledon champion Serena Williams is 22-16, French Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova is 12-12, Elena Dementieva is 10-21 and Venus Williams is 22-17. As their head-to-heads are broken down the leader of the Maroon Group, Serena, is the only one that has a winning record against each of her group mates. She is 5-2 against Kuznetsova, this year they met twice at the Australian Open which eventual champion Serena won and in the French Open which eventual champion Kuznetsova won. Serena is 6-4 against Dementieva and 2-2 this year with Dementieva's wins coming from Medibank International Sydney and Rogers, and Serena's victories coming from the Australian Open and their stellar match in the 2009 Wimbledon Championships. Serena is 11-10 against her sister Venus and 2-1 in the year. Venus won their first encounter of the year at the Dubai Tennis Championships with Serena winning their last two meetings in Miami and Wimbledon. Unlike Serena, Dementieva is on the losing side with her head-to-heads besides being 4-6 against Serena, she is also 4-6 against Kuznetsova, with Kuznetsova winning their only meeting this year in the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix and winning 4 of their last 5 meetings. Dementieva is also down against Venus 2-9 with Venus getting the upper hand 2-0 this year against Dementieva with wins in Dubai and Stanford. Adding to that Venus is in a 6 match winning streak against Dementieva with Dementieva's win dating back to 2004 in Miami. On the head-to-head between Kuznetsova and Venus, Kuznetsova leads it 4-3 with them splitting their last two meetings and with their last meeting dating back to March 2008 in Miami with Kuznetsova prevailing.