The WTA Tour Championships is a tennis event which takes place at the end of each year involving the top eight ranked tennis players in women’s tennis. The current sponsor of the event is Sony Ericsson and hence it is named as Sony Ericsson Championships. The WTA Tour Championships are considered as one of the most prestigious events on the WTA Tour, as the top-ranked 8 players participate in the tournament.

The BNP Paribas Open is an annual hard-court tennis tournament which is held in Indian Wells, California. Many people consider it as “The Grand Slam of the West”, and this event is the fifth most-attended tournament next to Grand Slams. The event is first of the nine ATP World Tour Masters 1000 events and showcases the best men’s and women’s players. This is a Premier Mandatory event on the Women’s tour.

Held annually at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, it is a state of art stadium which boasts of 16,000 seats and is the fourth largest stadium in the world. It is one of the world’s most beautiful venu es for watching the competition of world’s top professionals. This can be demonstrated from the fact that in 2009, the event saw a crowd of 332,498 people in a 12 day tournament. This was a record turnout as in 2007; the tournament had an attendance of 300,000 making it the best attended tennis tournament outside the four Grand Slams. The tournament was called by different names throughout; when it began in 1974 it was called as American Airlines Tennis Games.

Tournament Facts –

Venue – Indian Wells Tennis Garden
Surface – Hard / Outdoors
Official Ball – Penn
Men’s Singles – 96 players
Women’s Singles – 96 players
Men’s Doubles – 32 pairs
Women’s Doubles – 32 pairs
Courts – There are 20 tennis courts at the venue.
Winner of most Men’s Singles titles - Jimmy Connors, Michael Chang, and Roger Federer – 3 titles each.
Winner of most Women’s Singles titles – Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf, Mary Joe Fernández, Lindsay Davenport, Daniela Hantuchova and Kim Clijsters – 2 titles each.
Next Tournament -March 7, 2011
Past Winners – Jelena Janković

Name – Svetlana Kuznetsova
Country – Russia
Date of Birth – 27th June 1985
Height – 5’8 ½ “(174 cm)
Weight – 160 lbs (73 Kg)
Birthplace – St. Petersburg, Russia
Residence – Monte Carlo, Monaco
Nicknames – Sveta, Kuzzy, Kuzya
Coach – Andrey Olkhovskiy
Turned Pro – 2000
Hand – Right handed (two-handed backhand)
Hobbies – Football, snowboarding, listening to music.
Kuznetsova never leaves her home without her iPod.
Favorite music – Hip-Hop.  
Favorite artist – 50 Cent.
Favorite movies - Love Actually, Save the Last Dance.
Playing style – Kuznetsova is an all round player characterized by strong serve and heavy forehand shots.
Best tennis memory – US Open victory in 2004.
Inspiration – Kuznetsova is extremely inspired by the players who display fighting spirit on the court.
Grand Slam Titles – 2, French Open (2009)
US Open (2004)
Tournament Titles Singles – 12 WTA, 1 ITF
Tournament Titles Doubles – 14 WTA

Relationships –

Father – Alexandr Kuznetsov, who is cycling coach and has coached five Olympic and world cycling champions and currently he is the coach of Lokomotiv, best cycling club in Russia.
Mother – Galina Tsareva, is 6-time world champion and holds 20 world records.
Brother – Nikolay Kuznetsov is silver medalist at 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta.

Achievements –
Svetlana Kuznetsova’s career began in 2000 and in the same year she won her first title at Bali and Helsinki. Kuznetsova won the US Open doubles title in 2001 and attained the No.1 ranking. She was also named as the ITF Girls Singles World Champion. She has won 6 times against the reigning World No.1’s. She is also the only player to beat Justine Henin twice while she was holding the No.1 ranking. Kuznetsova was also named as Tour Newcomer of the Year in 2002.

WTA is the Women’s Tennis Association which was formed in 1973. This is the principal organizing body of the professional tennis for women. The association organizes the WTA Tour, which is known as The Sony Ericsson WTA Tour since 2005, due to sponsorship rights. The WTA Tour is a series of worldwide tennis tournaments for women.

The Women’s Tennis Association was originated in Houston, Texas. Virginia Slims was the inaugural event and was held on 23rd September, 1970. The corporate headquarters of WTA are in St. Petersburg, Florida, the Asia-Pacific headquarters in Beijing and the European headquarters in London. After the first event in Houston, the event paved the way for many others of its kind. The Virginia Slims circuit composed of 19 tournaments, all of which were based in USA except one which was held in Puerto Rico. The prize money totaled to $309,100.

By 1980, the number of women playing professional tennis had grown to 250 whereas the tour comprised of 47 events globally. The tour offered total prize money of $7.2 million. The WTA Tour comprises of 4 grand slams, 4 premier mandatory events, 5 Premier 5 events, 10 Premier events and 31 WTA International tournaments and a year ending Commonwealth Bank Tournament of Champions.

The Grand Slams includes tournaments- Australian Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon and US Open. The Premier Mandatory includes tournament like Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid, and Beijing. The Premier 5 includes tournaments like Dubai, Rome, Cincinnati, Canada and Tokyo. The Premier events include tournaments like Sydney, Paris, Charleston, Stuttgart, Warsaw, Eastbourne, Stanford, Los Angeles, New Haven and Moscow.

On July 13, 2009, Stacey Allaster was appointed as the new Chairman and CEO of the WTA.