The WTA's season ends Monday with the Chase Championships in New York.
The first season-ending tournament was an eight-player,
clay-court event in Florida in the spring of 1972. It served to
crown a champion of the recently concluded Virginia Slims winter
season.
|  | | Chris Evert-Lloyd during a match in 1986 when the tournament was sponsored again by Virginia Slims. |
From the beginning, the tournament has featured a large purse.
The initial total of $100,000 instantly made it the richest
event in the history of women's tennis.
Chris Evert won the first two championships, both held in Boca
Raton, Fla. In 1974, the tournament moved to Los Angeles, where it
was held indoors at the Sports Arena. The field was expanded
from eight to 16, and the winner's purse increased to a record
$32,000.
Martina Navratilova made her debut in 1974 and lost to Evert in
the final in 1975. In 1977, the event moved again, to Madison
Square Garden in New York. But in 1978, it moved west again, to
Oakland, Calif.
There, at the Oakland Coliseum, Navratilova captured the title
for the first time. The following year, Avon took over
sponsorship of the event and returned it to New York, where it
has remained since.
The top eight players in the points standings qualified for the
1979 field, which featured a new, double-elimination format and
a top prize of $100,000.
Virginia Slims returned as the sponsor in 1983, increasing the
total purse to a record $350,000. The field featured the top 15
players in the series points standings.
Several changes were made for the 1984 event. A 16th player was
added and the format returned to single elimination. Most
significant, the final was change to a best-of-five sets
format, the only such match in women's tennis. This format is
still in use today.
Navratilova dominated the event in the early 1980s, winning it
eight times between 1978 and 1986. She actually won the
tournament twice in 1986. Once in the spring and again in
November when the tournament was switched to its current
position at the end of the calendar year.
Navratilova would later end her singles career at the 1994
championships, losing to eventual champion Gabriela Sabatini.
Steffi Graf won the tournament in 1987 on the way to finishing
the year as the No. 1 ranked player in women's tennis,
unseating Navratilova for the first time in five years.
Graf also won the event in 1989, 1993, 1995 and 1996, but failed
to capture it in 1988, the year she dominated the sport by
winning all four Grand Slams and an Olympic gold medal in Seoul.
She made her final appearance at this event in 1998 and lost to
Lindsay Davenport in the semifinals. Graf retired last year and
was honored in a ceremony during the tournament.
Monica Seles won the tournament three consecutive years beginning
in 1990. She missed the tournament in 1993, 1994 and 1995 while
recovering from a stab wound suffered in 1993. Seles returned in
1996, but she lost in the first round that year and in 1997 before
losing to Graf in the quarterfinals in 1998. Last year, she did
not compete due to a foot injury.
Lindsay Davenport will defend her title in 2000 after winning her first
season-ending event last year. Davenport defeated Martina
Hingis, 6-4, 6-2, in last year's final, but finished 1999 ranked
No. 2 in the world behind Hingis.
This year's tournament is officially titled The Chase
Championships of the WTA Tour. Chase will serve as the
tournament's presenting sponsor for the fifth consecutive year. It
will be the last time the event will be held at Madison Square
Garden before moving to Munich, Germany, next year.
The 16 top players will compete for a top prize of $500,000 and
a total singles purse of $2 million.
|
|
ALSO SEE
Chase Championships past winners and results
How 2000 seeds fared in past
|
