Avon Championships
| WTA Finals | |
|---|---|
| Tournament information | |
| Founded | 1972 |
| Editions | 46 (2016) |
| Location | Singapore (2014–18) |
| Venue | Singapore Indoor Stadium |
| Category | Tour Championships |
| Surface | Hard / Indoors |
| Draw | 8S / 8D (2014 – present) |
| Prize money | US$7,000,000 (2016) |
| Website | www.wtafinals.com |
| Current champions | |
| Women's singles |  Dominika Cibulková |
| Women's doubles |
 Ekaterina Makarova Elena Vesnina
|
The WTA Finals (formerly known as the WTA Tour Championships short: WTA Championships), is a professional tennis tournament played annually at the end of the season for the top-ranked players on the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) tour. The location and number of players has changed since the first edition in 1972. Since 2003 there have been eight singles players divided into two round robin groups, and eight doubles teams.
The WTA Finals is unofficially considered the fifth most prestigious event of a season after the four Grand Slam tournaments. It also has the largest prize money and ranking points after the majors. The most successful finals player is Martina Navratilova, who has won 8 singles titles and 13 doubles titles.
To qualify for the WTA Finals, WTA players compete throughout the year in over 53 WTA tournaments throughout the world, as well as the four Grand Slam events. Players earn ranking points on the Porsche Race To Singapore leaderboard, and the top 8 singles players and top 8 doubles teams on this leaderboard at the conclusion of the year (as of the Monday following the final regular season tournament) earn the right to compete in the WTA Championships. For singles, all results from that year count towards a player's ranking; for doubles, only the best 11 results for a team from that year count towards the team's ranking.
Qualified players participate in a round-robin format in two groups of four. The winners and runners-up of each group advance to the semifinals. Doubles teams participate in a single elimination draw.
The championships were held for the first time in October 1972 in Boca Raton, Florida (USA) as a climax event at the end of a series of tournaments sponsored by Virginia Slims, called the Virginia Slims Circuit. 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–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 MSG until 2000. The event then briefly moved to Munich, Germany in 2001. More recently, it moved back to Los Angeles from 2002 to 2005. The 2006 and 2007 editions were held in Madrid, Spain. Doha, Qatar hosted the 2008–2010 editions before passing the flag to Istanbul, Turkey, which hosted the 2011–2013 editions. For the right to host the 2014 edition and beyond, 43 cities expressed an interest before a short list comprising Kazan, Russia; Mexico City, Mexico; Singapore; and Tianjin, China was drawn up in late 2012. Kazan and Mexico City were ruled out in early 2013, before Singapore was announced in May 2013 as the new host city for five years.
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