Well, the round-robin groups are drawn. It seems like Lindsay's group may be the easier one. She does have Sharapova to deal with, but Clijsters has Pierce, Mauresmo, and Dementieva. Lindsay and Maria have Pertova and Schnyder. Definitely the easier group.

Schnyder, Petrova, and Dementieva are a bit over-played at this point. Lots of fall tournaments to ensure they qualified for the Championships. It will be interesting to see how much gas they have left.

One would think that Lindsay has a leg up playing in LA on indoor carpet. But she was out last week with the flu and needs to come out sharp. Kim will have to battle, but if she makes it through her group, she may be well prepared for the semis and final. I think Pierce might give her a run, though.

Play starts tomorrow evening. Clijsters opens up with Pierce. Then she gets Amelie on Wednesday. Nothing like starting out under fire.

Has anyone seen a television schedule? Are the matches on The Tennis Channel?

I think Maria and Lindsay should come through easily in their group. Clijsters also in hers. After that, though, I think any one of MoMo, Dementieva, or Pierce could be the last semifinalist.

The Green group looks quite a bit weaker to me than the white. Unless Maria is both healthy and in-form (highly doubtful), Lindsay should win all three of her matches easily. To my mind Maria is questionable enough that she could lose out to Petrova or Schnyder.

I agree with Gaby that the other semifinal spot in the White group is up for grabs...

I think the coverage is on ESPN2. Here's a link:

http://www.adelphiamediaservices.com/nets/...spn2_tennis.pdf

Or if that doesn't work:

http://www.adelphiamediaservices.com/pages...id=espn2_tennis

Ack. It doesn't look like TSN is showing the YEC at all, just the men's. Unless the search is screwing up, the only tennis showing on my cable until the Masters Cup starts is World Team Tennis. :confused:

Hope this is clearer -- here's ESPN2's supposed coverage this week, Eastern time:


Wednesday the 9th: midnight to 1:30 am (day 1)
4:30 to 6 pm (day 1)
10:30 pm to midnight (day 2)

Thursday the 10th: 4 to 5:30 pm (day 2)
10:30 pm to midnight (day 3)

Friday the 11th: 4 to 5:30 pm (day 3)
11 pm to 12:30 am (day 4)

Saturday the 12th: 3:30 to 7 pm (semis)

Sunday the 13th: 6 to 8 pm (final)

My bet is Davenport for year end number 1! A good article on Yahoo sports about it. A shame that the big guns aren't there seems like every year someone is missing. Would like to see Lindsay and Kim battle it out in the final.

Here's the official link to the tournament, but without the television schedules, what a stupid oversight on their part:

http://www.wtatour.com/tournaments/championships/

I would love to see Sharapova do well, and defend her title. What would that do to the year end rankings?

A nice surprise to start the YEC off. Mary managed to cough up a great start and then come back to win in a stunning third set tiebreak. This is a big win for her, as Clijsters has been playing so well for months. It is so nice to see a real veteran playing such great tennis. Between Pierce and Davenport, they are showing the power of experience this year.

This makes Kim life infinitely more complicated. Another misstep and she is out. In theory, she could win her next two matches, and still be out. Never good to lose your first match on court.

Sharapova is playing Schnyder and Lindsay takes on Petrova yet tonight. The Lindsay match should be on ESPN, but not if the Maria match is still in progress. They might show Pierce/Clijsters instead.

WOW! Go Mary! What an upset I watched a set and a half of the Schnyder/Sharapova match. It was actually pretty boring...imagine that. Lindsay jumped all over Nadia later in the night. This ought to get interesting!

Pierce and Davenport are setting the tone so far. Both women are 2-0 with solid wins. Mary Joe was telling how Kim is very jet lagged. She got to LA last Friday and still has not adjusted to the time difference. Makes it hard to play at night, when you feel like it is the next morning. Still, you have to be able to adapt.

Lindsay played solid against Patty tonight, but a little sloppy on server in set two. Fortunately, Patty is not always pulled together enough to take advantage. Every break of serve was met with another one in return.

Lindsay wraps up round-robin action tomorrow night against Maria. This may prove to be a positioning match. The winner may get Clijsters in the semis -- not a real reward for being the best in your group.

complicated not only in terms of the maths involved in RR tournaments, but especially psychologically... in fact, her loss against mauresmo was due i think to a great extent to the fact that she couldn't come back mentally from her first loss to pierce.

is there any way she could still make the semis? i don't really know how all the permutations in her group could pan out...

Yes, there is one (albeit slim) chance for Kim to make the semis! (I always jump in on the numbers questions...I'm such a geek). She needs to beat Dementieva in straight sets and then will need Pierce and Dementieva to beat Mauresmo in straight sets.

If that happens, you have the following records for that group:

Pierce (match record: 3-0; set record: 6-1)
Clijsters (match record: 1-2; set record: 3-4)
Mauresmo (match record: 1-2; set record: 2-4)
Dementieva (match record: 1-2: set record: 2-4)

The key is that Clijsters needs to get herself into a tie with Mauresmo and Dementieva and then win on the tiebreaker conditions. To be really accurate Mauresmo and Dementieva can lose one of their matches in three sets (then the tiebreaker would go to total games won and lost), but Mauresmo must lose her next two matches and Dementieva must lose to Clijsters. By the same token we don't know if Pierce or Davenport is definitely through to the semis, because it's possible for Clijsters/Schnyder to go 0-3 in their groups and everyone else 2-1, thus forcing a tie at the other end.

I am thrilled with Mauresmo's victory over Clijsters. I wasn't able to see the match - it airs taped today on ESPN2 - but from what I've read, Amelie was aggressive and attacked the net when she had the opportunities to do so. It also sounds like she really mixed up her shots and refused to let Clijsters have a rhythm. That's the kind of tennis Amelie needs to play against the top players more often. Hurrah!!

I am sad to see Kim off to an 0-2 start, but Mauresmo had lost seven straight matches to Kim. Her last win was a thrilling three-setter at the 2002 US Open. Very soon thereafter, Amelie blew a huge lead and match points against Kim and seemed to have developed a mental block about playing Clijsters ever since. There were some awful scores in that seven-match run for Kim. Bagel and breakstick sets a'plenty. So I'm happy for MoMo!

highly unlikely, then? it would be a shame if KC didn't make at least the semis, considering what an incredible year she's had (especially the fact that she finally won a slam), but still - them's the traps in RR tournaments.

oh, and thanks for the complex run-down... where would we numerately-impaired readers be if it weren't for you number-crunching geeks?? :-)

Another rather surprising result for Kim. My guess is that she is really just out of gas at the end of the season, and playing nine time zones away is not a good thing for her. We all said her grouping was difficult, though, and it is not surprising to see others playing well. Kim really could go 0-3 with a loss to Dementieva not being out of the question.

The one thing I do not like about these round robin events is the odd situations that develop. A 1-2 player should never make the semis, but there is the outside chance mentioned. That is basically backing in because nobody in your group could come up with the goods.

On the flip side, you have something like last year where Lindsay finished 2-1 beating Serena in the process. She is out and Serena makes it to the final. That is rough as well.

Tonight Mauresmo can finish a trip to the semis with a win against Dementieva. Lindsay and Maria maneuver for position (there is still a chance for a three way tie in this group, however). I think Petrova/Schnyder are the other matchup. The loser there is not completely out if Lindsay beats Maria.

There was also a lot of mention of jet lag for Kim in news reports. I wonder why she didn't come a few days earlier for such an important event? It's not like she hasn't had experience adjusting (and knowing what it takes to adjust) to time zone changes in the past. (Maybe she's wrong when she claims she doesn't need a coach anymore?)

These tie breaker situations are weird. What happens if there are three 1-2 players and two of them tie for number of sets won? Do they go to total points??

They go by total games won.

Thanks SelesFan (I meant to say games, not points!). Speaking of which, saw another recent article on Seles, in which there was no mention of a silly farewell tour, despite what apparently appeared in a Yahoo article. Davenport was quoted as predicting the chances of a comeback at less than 5%.

Yeah, Monica had always said that she wouldn't make a big deal about her retirement. She admired the way Steffi just sort of called it quits and didn't go on with a bunch of hoopla. I don't foresee her coming back (as much as it PAINS me to say that).

Did anybody catch the tail end of the Schnyder/Petrova match last nite? Patty seemed to have quite a lengthy chat with the chair umpire when the match was over...did something happen during the match that annoyed her? I've always liked Patty's game (except for that period of time when she was a pseudo-cult member).

I did not catch the chat with the chair.

Lindsay looked about to overcome her apathy in the third set and then just watched Maria take it away. If they meet again the final, that might bode well for Lindsay. A little more fired up perhaps.

I think Sharapova wins her group by virtue of beating Lindsay. Even if Sharapova loses tonight. I may be wrong about that.

Pierce and Mauresmo decided the winner of their group on-court tonight. I think Lindsay would rather get Amelie, but you have to be prepared to beat whoever you face at this point. It is nice that Lindsay is the one semifinalist who gets a rest day today.

Poor Kim watched her year-end wash away last night. Not much for her and Dementieva to play for tonight, other than not wanting to be swept at the Championships. Two of the three matches tonight have no real impact (as far as I know) on tomorrow's match-ups.

I was surprised to see Sharapova win last night. It's been quite a while since she's played at that level.

Did anybody else think the Italian Vogue shots of her (they linked it on the WTA page) were extraordinarily ugly. They succeeded in making her look worse in a model shoot than she normally does on a tennis court.

For some reason the YEC, unfortunately, are not televised down here so I have not seen any of the matches.

Is there a good crowd there, and with atmosphere?? By the scores anyhow there have been some tight matches.

Didn't see them....but maybe it's art? She's so pretty, it's hard to imagine her looking bad.

Lindsay did not play well last night. I think the comfort of knowing she was through had something to do with that. I'm sure if they will have to meet again Lindsay will have a different attitude knowing its for elimination. I'm glad to see her force it to 3 sets though. Interesting in her post comments she said Maria was a "little bit dramatic" in her win. Then again, the only top 10 player Maria had beaten since April was Nadia Petrova so I guess that was a big deal for her, plus getting a little revenge from the 6-0, 6-0 THRASHING Lindsay gave her the last time they played.

However, how long was Lindsay supposed to wait at the net before Maria got done with her little celebration? Should be an interesting set up. So many have been on the Clijsters train since the US Open and that DERAILED big time. Lindsay has CLINCHED the year end championships so its now not as intriguing. I still want to see Lindsay win at the end.

As for those Italian Vogue pics...I agree. I mean Sharapova is nothing special in my opinion, but then again I'm not into blondes. I thought they were rather ugly pics and her face was the same in all of them. I had to give her the America's Next Top Model critique on that. Beauty is subjective however so..whatever.

This sure leaves the "player of the year" decision in a shambles. Undoubtedly will still be Clijsters, but her collapse at year end will make it somewhat hollow. I think if Davenport wins the YEC, I would vote for her (as if I had a vote), slam or no slam.

I agree, those Sharapova pictures are awful. It takes a lot to make a stunning woman look mediocre, so I guess one really has to hand it to that photographer.

I agree...it's almost as difficult as making Svetlana Kouznetsova look sexy.

Hey, lay off the Kuz! She's got a ghetto fab attitude in those horrible Dubai ads that ESPN2 has on permanent repeat. She might not ever have any modeling agencies knocking on her door, but to me she seems like the most fun personality on the tour.

Wow, those Italian Vogue pics aren't even arty, just cheap-looking. It says something about the excitement level of the YEC so far that we're all discussing bad pics of Sharapova.

I like Clijsters, but jet lag doesn't cut it as an reasonable excuse -- it didn't effect her much in September, even if there's a three hour difference. She's telling the truth, because she's looked out of sorts, but she should have prepared if she really cared. And I wonder how much she really does care right now, after picking up such a huuuuuge paycheck at the Open. Oboviously some of the others are a lot hungrier.

I wish I hadn't missed Pierce's matches so far -- have they shown any? Her and Dementieva drive me crazy with their quirks and yet I love watching them play.

I wonder whether part of the somewhat surprising results here have to do with the indoor environment and a fast hardcourt surface. Davenport, Pierce and Sharapova are all players who don't thrive on long rallies and Mauresmo has the best net game of the eight.

Yay Mary!!!!! She beats Mauresmo in 3 sets. It would be great if the two veterans, Pierce and Davenport were battling it out for the trophy. How great that would be. GO MARY!!!

Glad to see Petrova kick Maria's butt but was it Maria not giving it her all cuz she knew she was in the semis or did Petrova really kick her ass like that? If Sharapova did tank it than it sucks for the fans. This is something about the round robin I don't like.

Interesting matchups for tomorrow's semis. The match that I would like to see as the final is one day early. Pierce gets rewarded for winning her group by getting Lindsay. Nothing like coming up against Davenport right after her first loss in three months. Pierce is playing very well, though.

Sharapova gets Mauresmo. This will happen about 12 hours or so after getting pummeled by Petrova. Hmmm. Good opportunity for Amelie tomorrow.

The doubles kicks in tomorrow as well. Interestingly, two player double qualified. Ruano Pascual qualified with Suarez who is out with surgery. So, she played the rest of the year with Martinez and is in anyway. Cara Black was in as #1 with Huber who got injured in July. So, she re-qualified with Rennae Stubbs who is in her 10th consecutive doubles YEC.

See..thats what I thought the semi matchup should be. An AP article states that Lindsay won her group because she lost less sets than Sharapova but says Davenport will play Pierce tomorrow. Well...if Lindsay and Pierce both won their groups than this contradicts the WTA set up. So...it should be like you said:

Pierce/Sharapova
Davenport/Mauresmo

The WTA setup states Group A winner plays Group B runner up and Group B runner up plays Group A runner up. However, someone just told me that Sharapova is still the winner of her group because she beat the player in head to head that is in the semis so it should be:

Pierce/Davenport
Sharapova/Mauresmo

So according to the person I was talking to...the AP is wrong in saying Davenport won her group. I guess we'll find out tomorrow.

davenport and sharapova did finish with the same record, and maria did have a better set won/loss record, but i believe the first tiebreaker is head-to-head results, and maria beat lindsey, and therefore won the green group.

this is too bad, because i'd have loved a mary/lindsey final. allez mary!

Yeah, how about Pierce going undefeated--what a year this girl has had. Can she beat Davenport? Only if she plays so slowly that Lindsay gets tired and distracted from waiting for the seventh ball toss on the second serve while at 40-0.

And is it just me, but I simply could not find tennis on television this week. I did see a moment of Clijsters Mauresmo, but the 4:30 hour proved difficult viewing and I never found it on at night, although the Tennis Channel was showing live mens seniors geriatric McEnroe play. And I saw last night Todd Martin has joined that circuit--shouldn't there be a ten year wait until you can move on to the oldfolks circiut--seems unfair to the old folks. But did Mc beat him last night?

All of the YEC coverage is on ESPN2. Today's coverage starts at 3:30 ET and includes both semis. Tomorrow's final is on at 6pm.

The first tiebreak is head-to-head. The sets/gsmes only come into play with three way ties.

I wouldn't read much into Sharapova's loss. I'm sure she wasn't trying very hard (whether that's fair to the fans is another issue). On the other hand, Mauresmo is playing quite well -- a wonderful turn-around from her two first round drubbings last month.

Sharapova tanked, plain and simple!

Watching Lindsay Davenport run is too funny. Her nickname "the turtle" definitely fits. That girl really can't move well at all.

Yay...Mauresmo beats RoboPova. An all French Final! GO MARY!!!!!!!

Have to question the validity of this tournament I think as the standard has been pretty poor all round. Think of some of the great matches we have seen this year, particularly in the semis of some of the Grand Slams and you would expect this tournament to produce great epic matches. They all look pretty tired though don't they - I gues it's the same every year. Sharapova was horrible in her match.

I saw part of the Davenport/Pierse match. Mary loooked hungrier. Poor Linsday, she just never will be able to run down very many tennis balls. That is her most profround weakness I think. Get her running side to side, and she just won't win many points at all. I still like her alot though. She is so talented, when she wants to be.

Well tonight's final sure was quality stuff. Both Pierce and Mauresmo putting up a great fight in a great 3 set match.

I'm so happy for Mauresmo. She finally has a great result to go along with her great talent. I really hope that this is foreshadowing of things to come. I'm hoping that this victory pushes her confidence up enough to win slams.

Now, Clijsters has a slam, and Mauresmo has a YEC. Could this be WTA karma?

Both players had such a solid week in LA. I missed the match today (what a shame) and am sad that it was such a great one to watch. I read that it was really top-notch.

It is nice to see some of the players who have always been knocked a bit come up big. I wanted to see Lindsay come through for a big win, but it was not in the game plan. She is sort of like Chris always was -- the season championships never really panned out that well. End of year and wore out from the long season. Lindsay (at least) loves playing on the fast indoor surface.

What an awesome match to end the 2005 season last night!! As a die-hard Pierce fan, I was happy for Amelie. I thought it was an incredible match where both players played at a top notch level. Kudos for both players...3 hours and six minutes after 4-5 long days of tennis matches.

Now to Australia

I am so happy!!!!!

The match was fantastic. I was worried going into the final, because although Mary and Amelie had played the best tennis all week long, you never know with either of them in a final. But they both played up to the occasion and it was such an exciting match. For Amelie to hold up under the pressure, especially when serving for the match and going down 0-40 in what looked to be another disaster in the making, what a watershed victory this could be. It was so exciting that I missed the first half of Desperate Housewives for it!!!

Mary Joe Fernandez said it was the second best women's match of the year, following the Wimbledon final, and I'd definitely agree with that. Mary and Amelie both played so extremely well.

Congrats to Mauresmo. To my regret, I only caught the last few games, but I was rooting for her -- Pierce is fun to watch, but come on, she can be shady. This win might be a true turning pount. I loved that Nadal-style passing shot she came up with to take it to 5-4 in the third.

It's funny to see her come through with an almost Slam-level victory after all of the message board talk in recent months about what she needs to do to win -- the theme took over more than one thread, which is good, because we need to represent for the queers! Ultimately, so much of it is mental with Mauresmo, I've never seen her dig down deep with confidence the way she did in the last stages yesterday.

Yes but look who she played. Mary has a good hit on her but she got her butt kicked in the two finals she got to. I think it is great for Mo MO! But she needs to take it up a gear and quickly. She has the goods but she should have taken Mary in two easy sets.

I watched all 11 hours, 47 minutes and 16 seconds of this match. I was firstly shocked that Mau never said anything about all the time Mary takes, and as MaryJo Fernandez was saying, they are friends and things like this doesn't bother Mau. And there was no injury timeout. And it was really good tennis. Unfortunately I have a bad cold right now and couldn't do anything else last night, so it was great to just sit back and enjoy the big hitting, the messed up balls, the running, the sometimes shockingly good shotmaking. Really enjoyable.

But will this change Mau? Don't think so? Did getting to number one for five days do anything for her? I think she'll continue to be the fragile person she is, and if the lineups, say for the Aussie OPen, are not in her favor, she won't start winning them anytime soon.

I don't think winning over Mary Pierce is anything to sneeze at. Unlike her two grand slam finals this year, Pierce came into the Championships final ready to play. That was one of the nice things about it - neither Mauresmo nor Pierce caved. It was high quality tennis. Plus, Mauresmo beat Sharapova and Clijsters in matches that were high stakes matches as well.

Sure, there were no Williams sisters and no Justine - and Mauresmo got very lucky in that she never had to face Davenport - but there's no reason to think Amelie would have to go through all of those women to win a Slam.

I don't think Amelie is suddenly going to become dominant and beat everyone she faces or run through two or three consecutive Slam titles. I do think this win will give her the confidence she needs to start winning those matches when she's leading a Davenport or Williams by a set and a break but then it gets tight late in the third set. Now she knows she can pull that type of match out in her favor. And confidence of that kind goes a long way in tennis.