(Rank/Seed)
The Tournament of Champions was held indoors at the Armeets Arena in Sofia, Bulgaria for a second successive year. The top 6 women by ranking who had won at least one International title this year and weren't participating in the WTA Championships or the Fed Cup final were entered, alongside two wildcards. (14/1) Halep, (18/3) Kirilenko, (26/6) Pavlyuchenkova and (27/7) Cornet comprised the Serdika Group and (16/2) Ivanovic (wildcard), (19/4) Stosur, (25/5) Vesnina and (119/8) Pironkova (wildcard) comprised the Sredets Group. The players contested a round robin format, like the WTA Championships with the two players with the best results progressing into semi final knock outs.
Halep, supported by a partisan crowd, didn't drop a set in her group, beating Pavlyuchenkova 63 63, Vesnina 63 63 and Svitolina (alternate after Kirilenko's injury withdrawal) 61 61. Pavlyuchenkova finished second after beating Svitolina 62 64 and Cornet 62 62. Cornet benefited from Kirilenko's retirement leading 5-0 in her first match.
The Sredets Group was much closer as 3 players won 2 matches but lost another. Stosur qualified on top, beating Vesnina 63 63 and Pironkova 61 64 but losing to Ivanovic 62 57 62. Ivanovic finished second, beating Pironkova 60 62 but losing to Vesnina 64 36 76(1). Vesnina had beaten Pironkova 62 46 60.
In the semis, Halep recovered from a double break 0-3 third set deficit to beat Ivanovic 26 61 63. Stosur got the only break of the third set to edge Pavlyuchenkova 61 16 63.
In a repeat of the recent Moscow final (www.2013wtamoscowluxembourg.blogspot.com), a tired Halep replicated a victory over Stosur, winning 20 of the last 26 points to come back and win 26 62 62. It was her 6th title of the year in as many finals (only Williams has more this year with 11) and her 3rd win in as many meetings this year with Stosur. She will end the year at a career high of 11 with a place in the top 10 next year seeming almost guaranteed. For Stosur, it was her 3rd successive final but she failed to win her 3rd title of the year.
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