American Stephens stayed calm and saw off an increasingly agitated Angelique Kerber in the winner-takes-all night match to complete round-robin play with a spotless 3-0 record after she wrapped up a 6-3, 6-3 victory against the German.
The president of the Russian Tennis Federation Shamil Tarpischev has been fined $25,000 and banned from the women's tour for a year after referring to Serena and Venus Williams as "the Williams brothers" on a television chat show last week.
Wimbledon champion Petra Kvitova was voted WTA's Player of the Year on Monday following a season in which she claimed her debut Grand Slam title, steered the Czech Republic to Fed Cup glory and shot up 32 places in the world rankings.
Doha will host the 2008-2010 WTA Tour season-ending championships, the most prestigious event on the women's tennis circuit.
Coco Gauff battled past Elina Svitolina in the Auckland Classic final on Sunday to retain her title.
Garbine Muguruza continued her dream debut at the WTA Finals by completing round robin play with a perfect 3-0 record to advance to the semi-finals after a hard fought 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 victory over Petra Kvitova on Friday.
Serena Williams capped off a season to remember by capturing her fourth WTA Championship title with a 2-6, 6-3, 6-0 win over Li Na on Sunday.
Sania Mirza's preparations for the French Open were hurt as she suffered first round defeats in the singles and doubles events of a WTA tournament in Strasbourg.
The Indian ace rose to 44th in the singles list while her doubles standing also improved to 40th.
Sania Mirza and Bethanie Mattek-Sands earned themselves a shot at their third title of the season by reaching the final of the WTA Porsche Tennis Grand Prix in Stuttgart.
Simona Halep crushed Agnieszka Radwanska 6-2, 6-2 on Saturday to join Serena Williams in the championship decider at the WTA Finals.
Indian ace Sania Mirza and her Zimbabwean partner Cara Black ended the season and their partnership on a remarkable high by clinching the WTA finals women's doubles title with a comprehensive triumph in the summit clash in Singapore.
Svetlana Kuznetsova has the versatility and mentality to mark her out as the 'best player' on the WTA Tour.
Garbine Muguruza made an imposing start to the WTA Finals by confidently swotting aside Czech Lucie Safarova 6-3, 7-6 (4) in their White Group opener on Monday.
Sania Mirza's impressive showing at the Hobart WTA saw her move to world number 53.
The Belgian, who will succeed Mauresmo as world number one, claimed the first WTA Championships.
Maria Sharapova made light of her long injury layoff by advancing to the last four of the WTA Finals with an unbeaten record in round robin play after the Russian breezed past Flavia Pennetta 7-5, 6-1 on Thursday, and booked a surprise passage to the semi-finals for Agnieszka Radwanska.
Osaka will take plenty of positives out of the contest
Serbian Jelena Jankovic won her 12th career title with a 6-2, 6-4 demolition of second seed Caroline Wozniacki of Denmark at the Indian Wells WTA tournament on Sunday.
India's Karman Kaur Thandi has clinched her second W60 ITF title of her career after winning at the Evansville event in the USA.
The Indian tennis sensation climbed three rungs to finish 37th in the latest WTA Tour rankings.
Out of action owing to a wrist injury, tennis ace Sania Mirza has risen a couple of rungs to 90th in the latest WTA singles rankings issued on Monday.
Serena Williams, who won the Australian and Wimbledon Grand Slam titles last year, was voted the WTA Tour 2009 Player of the Year for a second successive season, at a ceremony in Miami on Wednesday.
Martina Hingis, fresh off her induction into the International Tennis Hall of Fame, will end a nearly six-year retirement to play doubles at next week's Southern California Open, the WTA said on Tuesday.
The Indian star also maintained her doubles ranking to be at 18th spot in the latest rankings.
Ruthless Serena Williams underlined her dominance at the top of women's tennis on Sunday, completing her year in style with a 6-2, 7-6 defeat of big sister Venus in the final of the WTA Championships.
The decision to lift the ban was met with protest from Ukraine, whose Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said it was "immoral" and urged Britain to deny Russian and Belarusian players visas.
Poland's Agnieszka Radwanska secured the last remaining spot in the season-ending WTA Championships without hitting a ball after Marion Bartoli retired from her Kremlin Cup quarter-final with an illness on Friday.
Sania Mirza has jumped up by 34 points to move to a career-best 132 in the latest WTA Tour tennis rankings.
Serena Williams shook off the rust and a feisty challenge from Serbia's Ana Ivanovic to open the defence of her WTA Finals title with a 6-4, 6-4 victory in the opening match of the elite eight-player tournament on Monday.
Sania Mirza and Francesca Schiavone's were handed a straight-set defeat by Spanirad Arantxa Parra Santonja and Edina Gallovits of Romania at the doubles event of the USD 220,000 Hobart International WTA tournament on Wednesday.
India's Sania Mirza runs the risk of dropping out of the top 100 for the first time since 2004 after she slipped to 91 in the latest WTA rankings.
Ai Sugiyama is the number one Asian player at 28nd rank.
Kvitova and Vekic had played twice on Saturday after a rain delay on Friday but it was the Czech who did not drop a set in the entire tournament.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Indian tennis ace Sania Mirza on winning the season-ending WTA Finals women's doubles title, calling it a 'proud accomplishment'.
Indian ace Sania Mirza and Switzerland's Martina Hingis entered the semi-finals of the WTA Finals after beating Taiwanese combination of Hao-Ching Chan and Yung Jan Chan 7-6 (12-10) 7-5 in Singapore on Friday. The Indo-Swiss pair will be pitted against the winner of the match between top seeds Caroline Garcia-Kristina Mladenovic and Bethanie Mattek-Sands- Lucie Safarova. It was a hard-fought two sets where both the teams held their service game till they reached 5 games all. It was in the 11th game of the first set that Sania and Hingis were broken. But the joy of their opponents was shortlived as they broke back in the very next game to take the first set into a tie-breaker.
Teenage sensation Sania Mirza has jumped up by 20 places to move to a career-best 77 in the latest WTA Tour tennis rankings.
She beat fourth seed Russian Maria Kirilenko in the first round of the Hobart International tennis tournament on Monday.
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