Petra Kvitova (foto ©Carine06)  reached the final without losing a set in the group stage, where she defeated Vera Zvonareva, Caroline Wozniacki and Agnieszka Radwanska. In the semifinals she defeated Samantha Stosur in three sets.

Victoria Azarenka reached the final losing a match in the group stage but it was the last one against Marion Bartoli, the result of which didn’t matter after Vika defeated Samantha Stosur and Li Na without losing a set. In the semifinals she defeated Vera Zvonareva in two sets.

Petra Kvitova starts dominating, breaks Victoria Azarenka’s serve in the second game and again in the fourth game. On 5-0 the Czech player gets distracted, make many unforced error and loses her serce two straight times too. On 5-5 Petra Kvitova restarts playing at her level and in the twelfth game she breaks her opponent’s serve again ti win the first set 7-5.

In the second set Victoria Azarenka breaks Petra Kvitova’s serve in the third game: it’s the first of three breaks in a row. Subsequently, Vika keeps her lead and wins the set 6-4.

In the third set Petra Kvitova struggles in the first game but comes back from 0-40 then breaks Victoria Azarenka’s serve in the second game. This time it’s the Czech player who maintains her advantage to win the set 6-3 to conquer match and tournament.

Today Petra Kvitova showed her best and her worse: when she plays her best she’s dominant but she has blackouts in which she virtually stops playing and often make mistakes because she can’t move well enough. However, with this victory she becomes number 2 in the WTA ranking: having also won Wimbledon it’s inevitable that many people will consider her the real number 1.

Victoria Azarenka showed that she’s really a top player: in the past she often lost her head in difficult moment, today she had the strength to take advantage of the opportunities her opponent gave her and her level rose during the match.

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The two finalists are the ones who played better during these WTA Championships. They’re two very young players – Victoria Azarenka was born in 1989 and Petra Kvitova was born in 1990 – who are getting closer and closer to the WTA ranking top in an year in which however some veterans won Grand Slam titles: Kim Clijsters at the Australian Open, Na Li at Roland Garros and Samantha Stosur at the U.S. Open while Wimbledon was the exception, being won by young Petra Kvitova. It was also a year in which four different players won the Grand Slam tournaments and only Na Li played two finals in these tournaments.

The number 1 in the WTA ranking Caroline Wozniacki won six tournaments this year but hasn’t even reached a final in Grand Slam tournaments and was eliminated in the group stage in these WTA Championships. The Danish player has maintained her lead in the ranking only thanks to the quantity of her results. The best young and veteran players have shown improvements so if next year things will change at the top of the world ranking don’t be surprised.