Serena Williams favourite to claim fifth WTA Finals trophy

Serena Williams leads the betting with Coral (11/8) to win her fifth, and third straight, WTA Finals tournament, at the expense of a star-studded line-up, featuring the world’s top eight women tennis players.

This year, the prestigious competition will be held in Singapore for the first time, and on hard courts at the nation’s 10k-capacity Indoor Stadium.

World number one Williams has been drawn in the Red round-robin Group, along with Romania’s Simona Halep, Canadian Eugenie Bouchard and Ana Ivanovic of Serbia.

While in the White Group, Russian Maria Sharapova, Czech Petra Kvitova, Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland and Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki face off for a place in the semi-finals, with the top two from each pool qualifying.

The Red Group is arguably the more straight forward, especially for American 18-time Grand Slam champion Williams, given that she holds a combined career 11-1 victory advantage over her opposing trio (49-4 against all the tournament’s participants).

On top of that, Romanian superstar Halep (12/1 to win the Finals) has struggled to really impress since the summer, when she finished runner-up at the French Open and got to the semis at Wimbledon.

The 23-year-old has had a terrific season on the whole, though, and said: “It’s not an easy draw. But everyone here is strong and a great player. I’ll enjoy my matches and try my best to win.”

Bouchard (14/1) and Williams’ fist opponent Ivanovic (9/1), meanwhile, have been suffering from injuries recently, having to pull out of tournaments running up to the WTA Finals.

Williams, who was also a doubt for this competition after withdrawing from the China Open, has spoken ahead of her opening match. “I don’t care who I play, to be perfectly honest with you,” she said.

“You can put me against anybody at this point, I’m ready. I really can’t wait for my match. I wish I had a match tomorrow.”

The White Group, meanwhile, has two former champions of this tournament and a runner-up. World number two Sharapova is the one to beat from this section, boasting a 21-7 win record over her three opponents.