2012 WTA Tour Championships
| 2012 WTA Tour Championships | |
|---|---|
| Date | October 23 – October 28 |
| Edition | 42nd (singles) / 37th (doubles) |
| Surface | Hard |
| Location | Istanbul, Turkey |
| Champions | |
| Singles | |
 Serena Williams
|
|
| Doubles | |
 Maria Kirilenko / Nadia Petrova
|
|
The 2012 WTA Tour Championships was a tennis tournament played at Istanbul, Turkey from October 23 to October 28, 2012. It was the 42nd edition of the singles event and the 37th edition of the doubles competition. The tournament was held at the Sinan Erdem Dome and was contested by eight singles players and four doubles teams. It was the larger of two season ending championships on the 2012 WTA Tour.
The tournament featured the top eight singles players and the top four doubles teams in the race to Istanbul. Victoria Azarenka, Maria Sharapova, Serena Williams, Agnieszka Radwańska, Angelique Kerber, Petra Kvitová, Sara Errani and Li Na qualified for the singles competition. Kvitová withdrew from the championships after one match and was replaced by Sam Stosur. Radwańska and Errani's round robin match set the record for the longest match in WTA Tour Championships history within the best-of-three system. Azarenka, Sharapova, Williams and Radwańska qualified from the red and white groups for the semifinals. This was the first time since 1989 that the world's top four ranked women's players all made it to the semifinals of the tournament and the first time since 2003 that the top four seeds made the same stage. Williams went on to win her third season ending championship.
In the doubles Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci, Andrea Hlaváčková and Lucie Hradecká, Liezel Huber and Lisa Raymond and Maria Kirilenko and Nadia Petrova made up the teams. The competition started in the semifinals and it was the all-Russian pairing of Kirilenko and Petrova who claimed the title.
The 2012 WTA Championships took place at the Sinan Erdem Dome 23–28 October 2012. It was the 41st edition of the event. The tournament was run by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) and was part of the 2012 WTA Tour. It was the larger of the two season ending championships on the 2012 WTA Tour, the smaller being the latter was only for players who did not qualify for the WTA Championships.
The singles event featured eight players and began as a round robin event, split into two groups of four. Over the first four days of competition, each player met the other three players in their group, with the top two in each group advancing to the semifinals. The first-placed player in one group met the second-placed player in the other group, and vice versa. The winners of each semifinal met in the championship match.
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