Wimbledon and U.S. Open doubles titlists Vania King and Yaroslava Shvedova have qualified for the season-ending WTA Championships, which will return to the Khalifa International Tennis Complex in Doha, Qatar, Oct. 26-31. The duo joins Lisa Raymond/Rennae Stubbs, Gisela Dulko/Flavia Pennetta and Kveta Peschke/Katarina Srebotnik.
The world’s top eight singles players and top four doubles teams will compete for $4.5 million in prize money.
King/Shvedova have enjoyed a breakthrough season, winning back-to-back Grand Slam titles within three months of first partnering in Birmingham. In just their third tournament together, they defeated Elena Vesnina/Vera Zvonareva to win Wimbledon, and followed that with the U.S. Open title, saving a match point to defeat Liezel Huber/Nadia Petrova and maintain their unbeaten record in majors. They also reached the final in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, losing to Alla Kudryavtseva/Anastasia Rodionova. Both King and Shvedova are headed to the WTA Championships for the first time in their careers. Shvedova — the first player in history from Kazakhstan to win a Grand Slam title of any kind — was also a runner up at Roland Garros in mixed doubles (with Julian Knowle), while King has won 12 tour-level doubles titles with other partners.
