The 2010 WTA Tour Championships was held in Doha, Qatar from October 26 to October 31. It was the third and final time that the Khalifa International Tennis Complex hosted the WTA Tour Year-End Singles and Doubles Championships. In 2011 the competition will move to Istanbul, Turkey.
Serena Williams was the defending singles champion. She qualified again but withdrew due to a continuing foot injury. Nuria Llagostera Vives and María José Martínez Sánchez were the defending doubles champions, but they didn't qualify this year. Elena Dementieva announced her retirement from tennis in the tournament after 13 years of playing and two Grand Slam finals, as well as an Olympic gold medal.
Finals
Singles
Kim Clijsters defeated Caroline Wozniacki, 6–3, 5–7, 6–3. It was Clijsters' fifth title of the year and 40th of her career. It was her third win at the event, also winning in 2002 and 2003.
Doubles
Gisela Dulko / Flavia Pennetta defeated Květa Peschke / Katarina Srebotnik, 7–5, 6–4.
Qualified players
Singles
Race singles (as of October 25, 2010)RkPlayerPointsTourDate Qualified17,27021September 2926,09618October 15,35512(6)Foot injury35,29513(10)October 24,98514(9)Left knee injury44,59521October 654,57218October 664,23620October 974,08520(19)October 983,93520October 20
On September 29, Wozniacki was announced as the first qualifier after she won her second round match in Tokyo.
Caroline Wozniacki enjoyed her best season so far, winning six singles titles, the most on the 2010 Tour, and achieving the world no. 1 ranking after reaching the quarterfinals, and later winning, the China Open. She became the fifth player in the WTA Tour's history to not win a Grand Slam event before achieving the world no. 1 status. Wozniacki won her first title at the MPS Group Championships over Olga Govortsova, 6–2, 7–5. Her best period was after Wimbledon where she won 5 of 7 consecutive tournaments she played, beginning with the e-Boks Sony Ericsson Open where she defeated Klára Zakopalová 6–2, 7–6. After this she won back-to-back titles in Rogers Cup over Vera Zvonareva 6–3, 6–2 and defended the Pilot Pen Tennis title defeating Nadia Petrova 6–3, 3–6, 6–3. Later she again won two consecutive titles in Tokyo and the China Open defeating Elena Dementieva 1–6, 6–2, 6–3 and Vera Zvonareva 6–3, 3–6, 6–3, respectively. As well Wozniacki also reached the final of the BNP Paribas Open losing to Jelena Janković 6–2, 6–4. At the Grand Slams, Caroline reached the fourth round of the Australian Open losing to Li Na 6–4, 6–3. She reached her first French Open quarterfinal, but lost there to eventual champion Francesca Schiavone 6–2, 6–3. At Wimbledon she suffered a fourth round loss to Petra Kvitová 6–2, 6–0. In the US Open she had her first Grand Slam top seed while world no. 1 Serena Williams was injured, but lost in the semifinals 6–4, 6–3 to Vera Zvonareva. This was her second appearance at the tournament after making the semifinals in 2009.
On October 1, Zvonareva qualified after reaching the quarterfinals in Tokyo.
Vera Zvonareva enjoyed a successful second half of the season. She began the year by falling out of the top 20 after failing to defend her Australian Open semifinal points, when she fell to Victoria Azarenka in the fourth round and failed to defend her title at the BNP Paribas Open. She won her only title of the year in the PTT Pattaya Open in Thailand as the defending champion, defeating the local Tamarine Tanasugarn in the final 6–4, 6–4. She reached five other finals but lost in each of them. She lost to Samantha Stosur 6–0, 6–3 at the Family Circle Cup, to Wozniacki at both the Rogers Cup and the China Open 6–3, 6–2 and 6–3, 3–6, 6–3 respectively. Zvonareva's main success began when she reached her first Grand Slam final at the Wimbledon Championships after defeating Kim Clijsters for the first time in the quarterfinals, but she lost the final to defending champion Serena Williams 6–3, 6–2. She reached a consecutive Grand Slam final at the US Open after defeating top seed Caroline Wozniacki in the semifinals, but ended up losing again to the defending champion, this time Kim Clijsters. Zvonareva reached a career-high world no. 2 at the start of the Tour Championships. This was her fourth appearance there, reaching the semifinals in 2008.
On October 1, Serena Williams and Kim Clijsters were announced as qualifiers.
Serena Williams began the year by reaching the final of the Medibank International Sydney losing to Elena Dementieva 6–3, 6–2. She won 2 of the 6 events she played in the year. The first came at the Australian Open defeating rival Justine Henin 6–4, 3–6, 6–2, after beating Victoria Azarenka in the quarterfinals being a set and 4–0 down. By winning the title, she set a record of 5 Australian Open titles in the Open Era. She won her second title at the Wimbledon Championships over Vera Zvonareva 6–3, 6–2. In doing so she passed Billie Jean King as sixth in total number of Grand Slam women's singles titles. At the French Open she lost to Samantha Stosur 6–3, 6–7, 8–6 after failing to convert a match point at 5–4 in the final set. Injuries plagued her throughout the season, missing three months of action after the Australian Open due to a leg injury and another four months due to a cut/torn tendon in her right foot after Wimbledon, causing her to miss the US Open and eventually to lose the world number one status. She was the defending champion but announced that she reinjured her foot and was out for the rest of 2010.
Kim Clijsters began the year by winning the Brisbane International against the returning Justine Henin 6–3, 4–6, 7–6. She claimed her second title of the year at the Sony Ericsson Open, defeating Venus Williams 6–2, 6–1. She missed a large amount of the clay season including the French Open due to torn muscle in her left foot, which she sustained in Belgium's Fed Cup match against Estonia. At the Western & Southern Financial Group Women's Open she defeated Maria Sharapova in the final 2–6, 7–6, 6–2 after saving match points in a rain-delayed final. In the grand slams, at the Australian Open Clijsters lost in the third round to Nadia Petrova in the worst loss of her career, losing 6–0, 6–1. At the Wimbledon Championships, Clijsters lost to Vera Zvonareva in the quarterfinals for the first time 3–6, 6–4, 6–2. The Belgian then took her winning streak at the US Open to 21 match wins after defeating Vera Zvonareva 6–2, 6–1 in the final. She competed in her 7th Year-end Championships after winning it twice in 2002 and 2003.
On October 4, Venus Williams was announced as a qualifier for the year-end championship.
Venus Williams continued to struggle in the Grand Slams outside of Wimbledon as she lost to Li Na in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open 2–6, 7–6, 7–5 despite being two points away from the win. At the French Open Williams advanced through the first three rounds but lost to Nadia Petrova 6–4, 6–3. At the Wimbledon Championships after reaching the final for the past three years, Williams suffered a loss to a then-unknown Tsvetana Pironkova 6–2, 6–3 in the quarterfinals. Outside of the grand slams Williams had more success as she won back-to-back titles in Dubai Tennis Championships and the Abierto Mexico Telcel, defeating Victoria Azarenka 6–3, 7–5 and Polona Hercog from Slovenia 2–6, 6–2, 6–3, respectively. Venus then reached the final of the Sony Ericsson Open recording a 15 match winning streak but lost to Kim Clijsters 6–2, 6–1. At the Mutua Madrileña Madrid Open Williams reached the final but lost to Frenchwoman Aravane Rezaï 6–2, 7–5. Venus missed the US Open Series due to a left knee injury but competed in the US Open where she lost to Kim Clijsters 6–4, 6–7, 4–6 in the semifinals. She then withdrew from the Year-End Championships due to the same knee injury.
On October 6, French Open finalists Francesca Schiavone and Samantha Stosur both qualified.
Samantha Stosur had the best year of her career so far after deciding to concentrate solely on singles. Stosur reached her first Grand Slam singles final at the French Open. After defeating three former world number ones in Justine Henin, Serena Williams, and Jelena Janković, before being beaten by Francesca Schiavone 4–6, 6–7. In the other Slams, she lost to the eventual champion at both the Australian Open and US Open, losing to Serena Williams 6–4, 6–2 in Australia in the fourth round and to Kim Clijsters at the US Open in the quarterfinals. Her most disappointing loss came at Wimbledon, where she fell in the first round to Kaia Kanepi 4–6, 4–6, becoming the first French Open finalist to lose in the first round of Wimbledon. Despite the loss, she managed a career-high world number 5. She also reached two other finals, in the Family Circle Cup defeating Vera Zvonareva 6–0, 6–3 and in the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, losing to Justine Henin 6–4, 2–6, 6–1. This was Stosur's debut in the singles of the Year-End Championships after twice winning in doubles.
Francesca Schiavone won her first Grand Slam title at the 2010 French Open beating Samantha Stosur 6–4, 7–6. This was the first time that Schiavone had gone past the quarterfinals. It also made her the first Italian to win a Grand Slam and the highest ranked Italian when she reached the height of world number 6. However, along with co-finalist Samantha Stosur she also fell in the first round of Wimbledon to Vera Dushevina 7–6, 5–7, 1–6. She won one other title at the 2010 Barcelona Ladies Open defeating compatriot Roberta Vinci 6–1, 6–1. She also reached the fourth round of the Australian Open and the quarterfinals of the US Open losing in both to Venus Williams 3–6, 6–2, 6–1 and 7–6, 6–4, respectively. Schiavone made her first appearance in the Year-End Championships.
On October 9, due to Venus Williams' withdrawal, both Elena Dementieva and Jelena Janković secured a spot in the Year-End Championships.
Jelena Janković continued to find the form that brought her to the number 1 ranking in 2008. She reached two finals in 2010, on the hard courts of the BNP Paribas Open where she defeated Caroline Wozniacki 6–2, 6–4 and on the clay courts of the Internazionali BNL d'Italia where she defeated both Venus Williams and Serena Williams in the quarterfinals and semifinals, respectively, before falling to María José Martínez Sánchez 6–7, 5–7. In the slams, Janković reached her first Grand Slam semifinal since reaching the final of the 2008 US Open at the French Open, losing to Samantha Stosur 6–1, 6–2. She also reached the third rounds of the Australian Open and the US Open losing to Alona Bondarenko 6–2, 6–3 and Kaia Kanepi 6–2, 7–6 respectively. At the Wimbledon Championships she was able to reach the fourth round before retiring to eventual finalist Vera Zvonareva while trailing 6–1, 3–0. She made her fourth consecutive appearance at the Tour Championships after reaching the semifinals in her previous two trips.