2008 WTA Tour Championships
The WTA Championships 2008 ( also known as Sony Ericsson WTA Tour Championships ) was a hard court tennis tournament for women in Doha, Qatar. The tournament took place from 4 to 9 November 2008, and was after the four Grand Slam tournaments, the on points and prize money with the highest prize tournament of the WTA tournament in the calendar of the ladies. The Tennis Championships WTA Tour in women's singles and double were played for the first time in Doha. In the years before they were held in Madrid, Spain.
The Belgian Justine Henin in the singles and the duo Cara Black and Liezel Huber in a double were the defending champions. Henin did not defend her title, she gave on 14 May 2008 her retirement from competitive sport known.
Winner of the single was Venus Williams, who defeated Vera Swonarjowa with 6:75, 6:0 and 6:2. The double title secured as in the previous pairing Cara Black and Liezel Huber. She won the final against Kveta Peschke / Rennae Stubbs 6-1 and 7-5.
- 2.1 Qualification
- 2.2 Competition mode
- 2.3 seedings
- 2.4 semifinals, finals
Singles
Qualification
The top eight ladies of the WTA Tour qualified for this competition. In addition there were two substitute players.
Competition mode
In the round robin phase four players played in two groups, each to each (English Round Robin ). The top two in each group qualified for the semi-finals. The winner of a group played against the second in the other group, the winners of these games contested the final.
Seedings
Semifinals, finals
Red Group
- In the final group match Ana Ivanović was replaced by Agnieszka Radwańska.
Maroon group
- In the final group match Serena Williams was replaced by Nadia Petrova.
Doubles
Qualification
The top four doubles pairings of the WTA Tour qualified for this competition.
Competition mode
The tournament winners were determined according to the knockout system.