WTA Championships in Doha: Let the games begin!

Jelena Jankovic of Serbia, Dinara Safina of Russia, Serena Williams of United States, Ana Ivanovic of Serbia, Elena Dementieva of Russia, Svetlana Kuznetsova of Russia, Venus William of United States and Vera Zvonareva of Russia line up for a photo during the draw for the Sony Ericsson WTA Championships.

The draws are out for the season-ending Sony Ericsson Championships - Doha 2008.

The 4 Russian women in the draw - Dinara Safina, Svetlana Kuznetsova, Elena Dementieva and Vera Zvonareva - are evenly split between the two groups.

Kuznetsova and Zvonareva are in the White Group and Safina and Dementieva - who squared off in the Olympic final - are in the Maroon Group.

ROUND ROBIN GROUP ALLOCATIONS (numeric prefix denotes seeding)

WHITE GROUP
1. Jelena Jankovic (SRB)
4. Ana Ivanovic (SRB)
6. Svetlana Kuznetsova (RUS)
8. Vera Zvonareva (RUS)

MAROON GROUP
2. Dinara Safina (RUS)
3. Serena Williams (USA)
5. Elena Dementieva (RUS)
7. Venus Williams (USA)

There's nothing split about the allocation of the remaining players.

Both Serbian stars - world No.1 Jelena Jankovic and world No.4 Ana Ivanovic - were randomly selected to be in the White Group, while Serena and Venus Williams are both in Maroon.

World no. 1 Jelena Jankovic of Serbia arrives for the draw for the
Sony Ericsson Championships at the Pearl conference centre.

Ana Ivanovic of Serbia talks to the media during the draw.

However, it doesn't mean that we won't have a chance to watch an all-Serbian or all-Williams final.

After the round robin phase, with each player meeting the other three in her pool between Tuesday and Friday, the top players in each pool play the second-placed player in the other in the semifinals.

The winner of each semifinal advance to Sunday's final.

"It's been a goal of mine all year to qualify for the Championships, so it's a real honor to be here," said Safina, who's enjoyed an outstanding season in 2008, rising from No.15 to No.2.

When asked about being in the same group as her sister, Serena Williams joked: "It doesn't bother me at all; we're always in the same half of the draw, so I'm used to it."

Serena Williams

Venus Williams

Svetlana Kuznetsova

Elena Dementieva

The group colors were in honor of the flag of Qatar, the hosts for the Tour's year-end event for the next three years.

Four doubles teams will also compete in the Sony Ericsson Championships - Doha 2008, although they play in a straight knockout event.

Top-ranked duo Cara Black and Liezel Huber will defend their title against two teams that were in Madrid last year - 2007 runners-up Katarina Srebotnik and Ai Sugiyama, and Kveta Peschke and Rennae Stubbs - and Spanish Olympic silver medalists Anabel Medina Garrigues and Virginia Ruano Pascual, who are debuting in the event together.

While Medina is making her season-ending debut, Ruano competed for five consecutive years with Argentina's Paola Suárez, winning the title in 2003.

The doubles draw takes place on Thursday, with the matches set to begin on Saturday.

(Via WTA website)