Lindsay Davenport finished the year as WTA world No. 1 for the fourth time in her career, though Kim Clijsters was named the Player of the Year. Davenport won six tournaments during the season, including a Tier I event, and finished runner-up at two majors at the Australian Open and the Wimbledon Championships. Clijsters won nine tournaments during the season, including a major at the US Open, as well as three Tier I events.
The 2005 WTA Tour was the elite professional tennis circuit organized by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for the 2005 tennis season. The 2005 WTA Tour included the four Grand Slam tournaments, the WTA Tour Championships and the WTA Tier I, Tier II, Tier III, Tier IV and Tier V events. ITF tournaments were not part of the WTA Tour, although they award points for the WTA World Ranking.
Going into 2005, Lindsay Davenport was holding the No. 1 ranking and therefore was the top seed at the year's first Grand Slam, the Australian Open. She reached the final for the first time since she won the event in 2000, coming back against Alicia Molik in the quarterfinals and Nathalie Dechy in the semifinals. Molik had a successful warm-up by winning the tournament in Sydney. Meanwhile, Serena Williams came through in the bottom half, beating Amélie Mauresmo and Maria Sharapova. In the final, Williams won her seventh Grand Slam title, and first since Wimbledon 2003. Justine Henin-Hardenne and Kim Clijsters both continued to struggle with injuries and skipped the event.
Justine Henin-Hardenne made a successful return from injury, winning the French Open.
The following week, Sharapova won the event in Tokyo, beating Davenport in the final. Moving into February, Mauresmo proved strong, winning in Antwerp and reaching the Paris final before losing to Dinara Safina. Sharapova also won the event in Doha, with Davenport winning in Dubai. Molik reached the semifinals of Antwerp and the final of Doha to continue her strong start to the season. Clijsters returned to competition in Antwerp, losing to Venus Williams.
Clijsters then won 14 straight matches to take back-to-back titles in Indian Wells and Miami. In the former, she beat Davenport (who had defeated Maria Sharapova 6–0, 6–0 in the semi-finals) in the final. In the latter, she beat Sharapova in the final. Clijsters was only the second woman to achieve the feat of winning both tournaments, after Steffi Graf in 1996.
Henin-Hardenne returned to competitive tennis in Miami, where she lost to Sharapova, but she then went on to dominate the clay season, winning events in Charleston, Warsaw and Berlin and building a 17-match winning streak. In the other big clay tournament in Rome, Mauresmo came out as the champion. Also enjoying good results in the clay season were Nadia Petrova, who reached the final of Berlin and the semifinals of Amelia Island and Patty Schnyder, who reached the semifinals of Berlin and Charleston, and the final of Rome. Davenport won the title in Amelia Island.
As the favourite to win the French Open title, Henin-Hardenne reached the final, saving match points against Kuznetsova in the fourth round, before beating Sharapova in the quarterfinals. In the semifinals, she beat Petrova. On the top half of the draw, Mary Pierce moved through to her first Grand Slam final since 2000 by defeating Davenport in the quarterfinals and then Elena Likhovtseva in the semifinals. Henin-Hardenne eventually won her fourth Grand Slam title, beating Pierce with the loss of only two games.
Venus Williams' Wimbledon triumph was her first singles Grand Slam trophy since 2001.
Wimbledon opened up with an early upset, as Henin-Hardenne became the first French Open champion to crash out in the first round, losing to Eleni Daniilidou, who brought an end to the Belgian's 24-match win streak. Australian Open champion Serena Williams also continued her struggles since that title, losing in the third round to Jill Craybas. In the semifinals, Venus Williams beat defending champion Sharapova, while Davenport moved past Mauresmo in a tight match. The final turned out to be the longest women's final in Wimbledon history, with Williams saving a match point before going on to win her third Wimbledon title, after 2000 and 2001.[1]
The summer hardcourt season saw a strong run from Kim Clijsters, who won titles in Stanford, Los Angeles and Toronto. Her only loss in the lead-up to the U.S. Open came against Peng Shuai in San Diego. In the absence of Clijsters, Mary Pierce won that event, beating Ai Sugiyama in the final. Lindsay Davenport took the title in New Haven, over Mauresmo in the final.
Maria Sharapova became the first Russian, male or female, to be ranked World No. 1 by the WTA Tour; she claimed the ranking on 22 August,[2] though Lindsay Davenport would reclaim the ranking the following week. Sharapova would herself recapture the top ranking following the US Open, despite losing in the semi-finals to Kim Clijsters. She would hold it until the end of the season, when again Davenport took over at the top.
Kim Clijsters won the U.S. Open as the culmination of a dominant summer.
After a struggling season up until now, Svetlana Kuznetsova went into her U.S. Open title defense in poor form, and subsequently lost on the very first day, becoming the first defending women's champion to lose in the first round.[3] 2003 champion Henin-Hardenne lost to Mary Pierce in the fourth round, while Venus Williams beat her sister, Serena, in the fourth round, before losing to Clijsters in the quarterfinals. Eventually, Clijsters beat Sharapova to reach the final. On the bottom half of the draw, Pierce followed up her upset of Henin-Hardenne with wins over Mauresmo and Dementieva, who beat Davenport in the quarterfinals, to reach her second Grand Slam final of the year. There, she lost to Clijsters, who finally won her first Grand Slam title after losing in four finals previously.
The fall season started with a surprise final in Beijing, with Maria Kirilenko beating Anna-Lena Grönefeld to win the event. Grönefeld also reached the final in Luxembourg, where she lost to Clijsters. Davenport won three tournaments in the last stretch of the year in Bali, Stuttgart and Zurich to secure the year end No. 1 ranking for the second straight season. Mary Pierce won her second Tier I event of the season in the Moscow event. Nadia Petrova won her first title after several lost finals in Linz, and Amélie Mauresmo won her third straight title in Philadelphia. It also proved a successful period for Patty Schnyder, who was the runner-up in Zurich and Linz, and Francesca Schiavone, who recorded three runner-up finishes in Bali, Hasselt and Moscow. Nicole Vaidišová won three smaller titles in three weeks in Seoul, Tokyo and Bangkok respectively.
In the big finish to the season, the year-ending championships, Mauresmo beat Pierce to win her biggest career title up to that point, with Davenport and Sharapova reaching the semifinals. Petrova, Dementieva, Clijsters and Schnyder were the other qualifiers.
Notable breakthrough players
The 2005 season saw the breakthrough of 17-year-old Serbian Ana Ivanovic into the WTA Tour. Starting the season ranked World No. 97 (an increase of 608 places from the previous year), Ivanovic won her first WTA career title at the Canberra International as a qualifier, defeating lucky loserMelinda Czink in the final, 7–5, 6–1.[4] She then went on to make her Grand Slam debut at the 2005 Australian Open, defeating Iveta Benešová and Maria Kirilenko in the first two rounds before losing to Amélie Mauresmo in the third.[5] She then went on to make the quarter-finals in Miami (losing to Mauresmo again, having defeated Svetlana Kuznetsova and Nadia Petrova en route) and the semi-finals in Warsaw (losing to Justine Henin-Hardenne, having defeated Vera Zvonareva en route); these results saw her enter the World's Top 30 for the first time. Seeded 29th at her first French Open, Ivanovic caused an upset in the third round when she defeated Mauresmo in three sets,[6][7] en route to reaching the quarter-finals in just her second appearance in the main draw of a Grand Slam tournament, where she eventually lost to Nadia Petrova. Following Wimbledon, Ivanovic entered the World's Top 20 for the first time, however an injury she suffered at the Rogers Cup caused her to be defeated in the second round of the US Open. A strong finish to the season, including two semi-finals in Zurich and Linz, saw her finish the 2005 season ranked World No. 16; subsequently, she was recognised as the WTA's "Most Improved Player" (a feat she would repeat in 2007).
Schedule
The table below shows the 2005 WTA Tour schedule.
Key
Grand Slam events
Year-end championships
Tier I events
Tier II events
Tier III events
Tier IV and V events
Team events
January
Week
Tournament
Champions
Runners-up
Semifinalists
Quarterfinalists
3 Jan
Hopman Cup Perth, Australia Hopman Cup Hard (i) – 8 teams (RR)
Amélie Simone Mauresmo is a French former world No. 1 tennis player and tournament director. Mauresmo won two major singles titles at the 2006 Australian Open and Wimbledon Championships, and also won the silver medal in singles at the 2004 Summer Olympics and the singles title at the 2005 year-end championships.
Justine Henin is a Belgian former world No. 1 tennis player. She spent a total of 117 weeks as the world No. 1 and was the year-end No. 1 in 2003, 2006 and 2007. Henin, coming from a country with limited success in tennis, helped establish Belgium as a leading force in women's tennis alongside Kim Clijsters, and led the country to its first Fed Cup crown in 2001. She was known for her all-court style of play and for being one of the few female players to use a single-handed backhand.
Kim Antonie Lode Clijsters is a Belgian former professional tennis player. Clijsters reached the world No. 1 ranking in both singles and doubles, having held both rankings simultaneously in 2003. She won six major titles, four in singles and two in doubles.
Nadezhda Viktorovna "Nadia" Petrova is a Russian former professional tennis player. A former top-five player in both singles and doubles, she reached a career-high ranking of No. 3 in the world in both disciplines. Petrova won a total of 37 titles on the WTA Tour in her career, 13 in singles and 24 in doubles, as well as over $12.4 million in prize money, making her one of the most successful Russian tennis players of all time.
Patty Schnyder is a Swiss retired tennis player. A former top 10 player in singles, she twice defeated a reigning world No. 1 player in her career: Martina Hingis at the 1998 Grand Slam Cup and Jennifer Capriati at the Family Circle Cup in 2002. In addition, she has notable wins over such former No. 1 players as Lindsay Davenport, Serena Williams, Arantxa Sánchez Vicario, Steffi Graf, Kim Clijsters, Justine Henin, Amélie Mauresmo, Maria Sharapova, Jelena Janković, Ana Ivanovic, and Caroline Wozniacki.
Ana Schweinsteiger is a Serbian former world No. 1 tennis player. She claimed the top ranking after winning the 2008 French Open, and held the position for a total of 12 weeks. She was also the runner-up at the 2007 French Open and the 2008 Australian Open, losing to Justine Henin and Maria Sharapova respectively. She qualified for the year-end WTA Tour Championships three times, in 2007, 2008 and 2014 and won the year-end WTA Tournament of Champions twice, in 2010 and 2011.
The 2006 Sony Ericsson WTA Tour was the 36th season since the founding of the Women's Tennis Association. It commenced on January 2, 2006, and concluded on November 12, 2006, after 61 events.
Venus Williams defeated Lindsay Davenport in the final, 4–6, 7–6(7–4), 9–7 to win the ladies' singles tennis title at the 2005 Wimbledon Championships. It was her third Wimbledon singles title and fifth major singles title overall. At two hours and 45 minutes, it was the longest Wimbledon women's final in history. Williams became the first woman in the Open Era, and the first since Helen Wills in 1935, to win the title after saving a championship point. She lost only one set during the tournament, to Davenport in the final — which was a rematch of the 2000 final.
Amélie Mauresmo defeated Justine Henin-Hardenne in the final, 6–1, 2–0 ret., to win the women's singles tennis title at the 2006 Australian Open. It was her first major title. Henin-Hardenne was suffering from stomach cramps resulting from the accidental misuse of anti-inflammatories for a chronic shoulder injury. This was Mauresmo's third match of the tournament where her opponent retired. Mauresmo and Henin-Hardenne would have a rematch in the Wimbledon final later that year, where Mauresmo would win in three sets.
Serena Williams defeated Lindsay Davenport in the final, 2–6, 6–3, 6–0 to win the women's singles tennis title at the 2005 Australian Open. It was her second Australian Open singles title and her seventh major singles title overall. Williams saved three match points en route to the title, in the semifinals against Maria Sharapova.
Justine Henin-Hardenne defeated Mary Pierce in the final, 6–1, 6–1 to win the women's singles tennis title at the 2005 French Open. It was her second French Open title, and her first of three consecutive French Open titles. Henin became the second woman in the Open Era to win the title after saving a match point, doing so in the fourth round against Svetlana Kuznetsova.
The 2006 Wimbledon Championships was a tennis tournament played on grass courts at the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club in Wimbledon, London in the United Kingdom. It was the 120th edition of the Wimbledon Championships and were held from 26 June to 9 July 2006. It was the third Grand Slam tennis event of the year.
Amélie Mauresmo defeated Justine Henin-Hardenne in the final, 2–6, 6–3, 6–4 to win the ladies' singles tennis title at the 2006 Wimbledon Championships. It was her second major title, having won the Australian Open earlier in the year. Mauresmo also became the first Frenchwoman to win Wimbledon since Suzanne Lenglen in 1925. Henin-Hardenne was attempting to complete the career Grand Slam.
Maria Sharapova defeated Justine Henin-Hardenne in the final, 6–4, 6–4 to win the women's singles tennis title at the 2006 US Open. It was her second major title. She lost just one set during the tournament. By reaching the final, Henin-Hardenne became the eighth woman to reach all four major finals in a calendar year.
The 2007 Sony Ericsson WTA Tour was the elite professional tennis circuit organized by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for the 2007 tennis season. The calendar comprises the Grand Slam tournaments, the WTA Tier I-IV Events, the Fed Cup and the year-end championships.
The 2004 WTA Tour was the elite professional tennis circuit organized by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for the 2004 season. The 2004 WTA Tour calendar comprised the Grand Slam tournaments, the WTA Tier I-V Events, the Fed Cup, the Summer Olympic Games and the year-end championships.
Elena Viacheslavovna Dementieva is a Russian former professional tennis player. She won the singles gold medal at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, having previously won the silver medal at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney. She won 16 WTA singles titles, reached the finals of the 2004 French Open and 2004 US Open and reached seven other Grand Slam semifinals. Dementieva was also part of the Russian team that won the 2005 Fed Cup. In doubles, she won the 2002 WTA Championships with Janette Husárová and was the runner-up in two US Open doubles finals – in 2002 with Husárová and in 2005 with Flavia Pennetta. Dementieva achieved a career-high ranking of world No. 3, which was accomplished on 6 April 2009. She announced her retirement on 29 October 2010, after her final match at the 2010 WTA Championships. Between 2003 and 2010, she only ended one year, in 2007, outside the top 10. She is considered to be one of the most talented players never to have won a Grand Slam tournament.
Svetlana Aleksandrovna Kuznetsova is a Russian former professional tennis player. She is a two-time major singles champion, winning the 2004 US Open and 2009 French Open, and finishing runner-up at two other majors. In doubles, Kuznetsova reached the finals of each major at least once, winning the Australian Open twice.
Results and statistics from Maria Sharapova's 2006 tennis season.
Results and statistics from Maria Sharapova's 2005 tennis season.
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Kim Clijsters (9)
Lindsay Davenport (10)
Samantha Stosur 
Ana Ivanovic 
Sania Mirza 
