Singapore has just been announced as the next host of the 2014-2018 Women's Tennis Association(WTA) championships, the most prestigious event on the WTA calendar.
This is a huge coup for sports in Singapore with the record-breaking five-year agreement.
Singapore was chosen after an extensive global search and bidding process where 43 international cities were narrowed down to just three finalists- Tianjin (China), Monterrey (Mexico) and Singapore, which finally emerged victorious.
Singapore will become the ninth city to host the WTA Championships following Boca Raton (Florida, Los Angeles, Oakland (California), New York City, Munich, Madrid, Doha and Istanbul.
The championships are slated to be held at the state-of-the-art US$1 billion Singapore Sports Hub – where the 7,500-seat Singapore Indoor Stadium will be the main arena for the matches.
In addition, the year-end tennis event will feature international entertainment events like WTA Future Stars, WTA Legends exhibition matches, concerts, daily fan festivals and trade symposiums. It will be a unique fan experience for one and all.
That’s not all. Tennis super stars Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams have also chimed in on their thoughts about the host city.
“It's incredibly exciting to have our WTA Championships heading to Singapore, which is a fantastic sporting city,” said Maria Sharapova, a three-time finalist at the WTA Championships, including winner in 2004. “Women's tennis is truly international, and bringing our very best event to fantastic new markets like Singapore is great way to continue to grow the sport. I can't wait to help introduce the fans of Singapore to the year-end Championships.”
“Singapore is a wonderful city and I am really looking forward to playing our season finale in this exciting new market for women's tennis," said Serena Williams, a three-time champion at the year-end event. “I've been fortunate to qualify for WTA Championships in five different cities during my career,
and I know that our new partners in Singapore and the fans of Singapore will help make take our Championships to new heights.”
Tennis fan or not, we’re pretty sure this is an event that will draw the best of the sporting world to our shores. We can’t wait to catch all the action when the event is finally here.
Check out the video below for congratulatory messages from players likes Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova, Sam Stosur, Caroline Wozniacki and more!