Four former or current singles world No.1s compete this year at Doha – Ana Ivanovic, Jelena Jankovic, SerenaWilliams and Venus Williams.
This year's singles field features one former champion – S.Williams (2001).
Five of the eight qualifiers are former or current Grand Slam titleholders – Ivanovic (one), Svetlana Kuznetsova (one), Sharapova (two), S.Williams (nine), V.Williams (seven).
One out of the eight singles competitors is making her Sony Ericsson Championships debut – Dinara Safina (plus first alternate Agnieszka Radwanska).
Between them, the eight principal competitors won 22 Sony Ericsson WTA Tour singles titles in 2008 and amassed more than US$18 million in official prize money; the only Doha qualifier not to win a title this season is Kuznetsova, who was five times runner-up.
Three of the elite eight arrive at Doha on winning streaks, having won their most recent tournaments: Elena Dementieva (Luxembourg), Ivanovic (Linz) and V.Williams (Zürich); in addition, second alternate Nadia Petrova won at Québec City just last Sunday.
Dementieva has played more SEC matches than any other player in the 2008 line-up (17). Last year the Russian was the second alternate at Madrid, but was not called upon to play; France’s Marion Bartoli became the first alternate (since the reintroduction of the round robin format in 2003) to be called into duty, following the withdrawal of S.Williams with a left knee injury.
Despite playing just nine events before injury problems set in, Australian Open champion Maria Sharapova accumulated 2,515 Race Points, just seven points fewer than Venus Williams, who qualified in eighth place.
After two years in Madrid, the Sony Ericsson Championships are being hosted by Doha for the first time, as part of a three year run (2008-2010); the season-ending event moves to Istanbul, Turkey for 2011-13.(WTA)
