Thursday, October 22, 2009

The Commonwealth Bank Tournament of Champions



The biggest bonus in the history of any sports in Indonesia will be provided at the 2009 season-end tournament, The Commonwealth Bank Tournament of Champions (“CBTC”) to be held in Nusa Dua, Bali, from November 4 to 8, 2009 at the Bali International Convention Centre adjacent to The Westin Resort Nusa Dua, Bali. CBTC will present 10 top tennis players who have won at least one International Tournament of Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) in 2009 and 2 wild cards. The winner of this event will receive USD 600.000 prize money. A bonus of USD 1 million will be added if the winner has won three of the total 30 International Tournaments in 2009.

Among the winners of 2009 International Tournaments, 10 highest ranked players who are not participating in the Sony Ericsson Championships in Doha are qualified for CBTC. They will be joined by 2 wild cards to be nominated by the tournament owner or WTA.
The 12 participants will be divided into four groups of three players to compete in round-robin singles format. The winners of the groups will play in single elimination semifinals for the places in the final.


Qualified Players

The following players are likely to be the participants of CBTC.
Jelena Jankovic (9, SRB) or Vera Zvonareva (7, RUS)
Marion Bartoli (11, FRA)
Samantha Stosur (13, AUS)
Yanina Wickmayer (20, BEL)
Anabel Medina Garrigues (26, ESP)
María José Martínez Sánchez (34, ESP)
Shahar Peer (38, ISR),
Melinda Czink (40, HUN)
Aravane Rezai (43, FRA)
Magdalena Rybarikova (45, SVK)
Agnes szavay (46, HUN).

Actually five of the Top 10 women players are qualified to play in Bali, but they are scheduled to play in Sony Ericsson Championships in Doha, Qatar, next week. Dinara Safina (2, RUS), Venus Williams (4, USA), Elena Dementieva (5, RUS), Caroline Wozniacki (6, DEN), and Victoria Azarenka (8, BLR) have won at least one International Tournament this year, but they are likely to play in Doha for a bigger prize money and an unofficial best of the bests title.

Officially WTA have announced Wickmayer and Medina Garrigues for the tickets to Bali. The upset of Bartoli in Osaka and Stosur win in Linz last week have given them two tickets to Bali as they are ranked above Wickmayer and Medina Garrigues. It means that there are six tickets available for the other winners of 2009 International Series tournaments.

Flavia Pennetta (12, ITA), who have won the Internazionali Femminili di Tennis di Palermo would not be playing in Bali as Italy will play USA in Fed Cup final in Italy. Any of Jankovic and Zvonareva who are now competing for the last ticket to Doha would not be in Bali.


Last Chance for Other Players

There are five women who have not won an International Tournament that have the last chance to join ‘The 10 Champions’ in Bali. They are Kim Clijsters (18, BEL), Daniela Hantuchova (23, SVK), Sabine Lisicki (28, GER), Alona Bondarenko (29, UKR), Carla Suarez Navarro (32, ESP), and Patty Schnyder (47, SUI) who are now competing at the BGL Luxembourg OpenAdd Image. Clijsters, the winner of 2009 US Open and former world number one player, has a big chance to win in Luxembourg and grab the last ticket to Bali.


Bonus

There are four winners who have won two International Tournaments this year, namely Victoria Azarenka, Yanina Wickmayer, María José Martínez Sánchez, and Shahar Peer. Two of them, Wickmayer and Peer, keep their chances for taking home one million dollar bonus by cruising through the BGL Luxembourg Open. They need to win in Luxembourg and Bali. Not an easy task though.








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