November 13th, 2007
Madrid, Spain
The WTA Tour came to an end for the year 2007 this past Sunday at the Year Ending Championships being held for the second consecutive year in Madrid, Spain. And like in 2006, the same outcome happened this year, Justine Henin left Madrid as the champion. For the Belgian, it capped off her best year on tour ever, winning 10 out of 13 tournaments entered, only having losses at, Paris, Miami and at Wimbledon. Henin also was awarded over 5 million dollars in prize money, the most for any female athlete in any sport, in history.
With the win, Henin has claimed titles this year in Dubai, Doha, Warsaw, Roland Garros, Eastbourne, Toronto, US Open, Stuttgart, Zurich and in Madrid. She now has 39 career titles including 7 Grand Slam championships. For Henin, it is the 2nd time she has captured the Year Ending Championships and has ended this season as the Number 1 player in the world.
For the rest of the women who made their way to Madrid, Jelena Jankovic, Serena Williams, Daniela Hantuchova and Svetlana Kuznetsova all were disappointments. Williams played 1 set before retiring, allowing Marion Bartoli to come in, who was double bageled by Henin. Maria Sharapova who would not have been at the Championships if Venus Williams hadn't pulled out made it all the way to the Finals only to lose to Henin, 5-7, 7-5, 6-3. Henin was awarded 1 million dollars as the prize.
For the rest of the women, this means they must wait to next season to prosper and try to be successful. Will Henin continue her dominance, will Sharapova be born again, what about the Williams sisters? Will they be a force to be reckoned with in 2008? Will the Serbian duo of Ivanovic and Jankovic continue their strong play? Will young guns like Chakvetadze and Vaidasova take over? We'll have to wait and see what happens.
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