Kim Clijsters of Belgium defeated the new World No. 1, Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark, to win the year-ending championship in Doha, 6-3, 5-7, 6-3.
Clijsters’s victory earned her a fifth title of the year – one less than Wozniacki’s tour-best half-dozen – and 40th of her career and solidified her season-ending ranking of No.3 in the world behind the Dane and Russian Vera Zvonareva
It was a day of momentum swings, as Clijsters took the first set 6-3 behind her powerful forehands. She went up 4-1 in the 2nd set. It looked like a clean sweep was on the way when suddenly the forehand seemed to disappear and Wozniacki fought back, winning 6 of the next 7 games to take set 2 at 7-5. Clijsters again jumped out in front, breaking Wozniacki twice with Wozniacki breaking back once. Clijsters was serving at 5-3 for the match, but gave Wozniacki an opportunity to get back on serve. Wozniacki had two break points as Clijsters fell behind 15-40. But Clijsters fought off those two break points, and another, before delivering a forehand winner on her second match point to wrap up the match in 2 hours and 19 minutes.
Clijsters and Wozniacki had met only once before, in the final of last year’s US Open, when Clijsters defeated Wozniacki (who was slowed by leg problems), 7-5, 6-3.
Clijsters also won this tournament in 2002 and 2003 and became just the fifth woman in history to win the season-ending tournament three times, joining Martina Navratilova (who won eight times), Steffi Graf (five) Chris Evert (three) and Monica Seles (three).
2009 US Open finalist Wozniacki is now 12-8 in WTA singles finals; she won this year at Beijing, Tokyo, New Haven, Montreal, Copenhagen, and Ponte Vedra Beach, and reached the Indian Wells final. Wozniacki ends the year with a 62-17 singles match record, and was 32-4 during the post-Wimbledon hard court season, enough to solidify the World No. 1 year-end ranking.
