Jankovic and Dementieva join Caroline Wozniacki, Vera Zvonareva, Serena Williams, Kim Clijsters, Samantha Stosur, Francesca Schiavone and the doubles teams of Gisela Dulko/Flavia Pennetta, Kveta Peschke/Katarina Srebotnik, Lisa Raymond/Rennae Stubbs and Vania King/Yaroslava Shvedova. The world’s top eight singles players and top four doubles teams will compete for the coveted WTA Championships title and a share of the $4.5 million in prize money.
“I congratulate Jelena and Elena on qualifying for the WTA Championships,” said Stacey Allaster, Chairman and CEO of the WTA. “Both Jelena and Elena consistently perform at the highest level year in and year out, and it’s great to see them qualify for what promises to be a terrific finale to the 2010 season.”
Serbia’s Jankovic is headed to her fourth straight WTA Championships, where she has been a semifinalist in each of the last two years. A winner of the BNP Paribas Open (Indian Wells), her 12th career singles title, Jankovic also reached the final at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia (Rome, l. Martinez Sanchez), the semifinals at Roland Garros (l. Stosur), and the quarterfinals at the Barclays Dubai Tennis Championships (Dubai), the Family Circle Cup (Charleston), and the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix (Stuttgart).
Russia’s Dementieva has qualified for the year-end WTA Championships for the tenth time in her career, achieving her best results at the event in 2000 and 2008 by reaching the semifinals. Dementieva started off the season by capturing titles at two of her first three tournaments: the Medibank International (Sydney) and the Open GDF SUEZ (Paris). Additionally, she was runner-up at the Malaysia Open (Kuala Lumpur, l. Kleybanova) and the Toray Pan Pacific Open (Tokyo, l. Wozniacki); and the semifinals of the Pilot Pen Tennis at Yale (New Haven, l. Wozniacki).
The season-ending championships are set to take place for the third year in a row at the Khalifa International Tennis Complex in Doha, Qatar, from October 26-31.
