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SINGAPORE – The BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global is blessed with the support of nine WTA Legends: Alicia Molik, Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario, Chris Evert, Iva Majoli, Martina Navratilova, Mary Pierce, Monica Seles, Tamarine Tanasugarn and Yayuk Basuki.

Who played at record 21 editions of the WTA Finals? Which Legends competed in Dancing With The Stars? And who has a Triple Crown winning horse named after her?

Reem Abulleil brings you some facts you may or not have known about these remarkable women, right here on wtatennis.com.

Alicia Molik

Molik won a bronze medal at the Olympic tennis event in Athens in 2004, beating the then reigning French Open champion Anastasia Myskina in the bronze-medal match.

The Adelaide-born former World No.8 says Michael Jordan was her childhood hero.

She is Australian but is very proud of her Polish heritage and jokes that she probably got her good footwork from the Polish dance classes she took when she was young.

Also, she’s won two Grand Slam doubles titles – the 2005 Australian Open with Svetlana Kuznetsova and the 2007 French Open with Mara Santangelo.

Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario

Sanchez-Vicario was the singles runner-up at the WTA Finals to Steffi Graf in 1993 – back then the final was best-of-five sets and she lost in four – in Madison Square Garden and won the doubles title twice, in 1992 with Helena Sukova and 1995 with Jana Novotna.

She qualified for the WTA Finals 13 times throughout her illustrious career.

The Spaniard was affectionately nicknamed the “Barcelona Bumble Bee” by the late Bud Collins.

Before playing the 1989 French Open final, where a 17-year-old Sanchez-Vicario was going to face World No.1 Steffi Graf, the Spanish press were asking her how many games she thought she was going to muster against the German favorite. She ended up beating Graf in three sets to become Spain’s first female Grand Slam champion in the Open Era.

She is a five-time Olympian – from 1998-2004 – with doubles silver and singles bronze won at her home Games in Barcelona in 1992, and singles silver and doubles bronze captured in Atlanta 1996.

Her four medals made her the most decorated Spanish Olympian at the time, a record later broken by canoeist David Cal.

She reached 12 Grand Slam singles finals, winning four of them (three French Opens and one US Open).

Chris Evert

Evert was the winner of the inaugural edition of the WTA Finals in 1972, triumphing on the clay of Boca Raton against Kerry Melville Reid in the final at the tender age of 17.

But her amateur status meant that she had to forfeit her 1972 winner’s check of $25,000.

She made the final of each of the first six editions of the WTA Finals, capturing four titles in total.

Her epic rivalry with Martina Navratilova featured heavily in the WTA Finals and they faced off in three championship matches, with Navratilova owning a slight 2-1 edge over Evert in those finals.

Carl Rosen, owner of clothing manufacturer Puritan Fashions Corp, named a horse after her. The horse, Chris Evert, went on to win the 1974 U.S. Filly Triple Crown and was inducted into the Hall of Fame.

In 1976, she was named Sports Illustrated’s ‘Sportsman of the Year’ – one of only four occasions the award was given to a tennis player.

Iva Majoli

Majoli qualified to the WTA Finals four times, from 1994 to 1997.

Her best result at the WTA Finals was reaching the semifinals in 1996.

The former World No.4 ended Martina Hingis’ 37-match winning streak by beating her in the final to capture the 1997 French Open. Seeded No.9, Majoli was the lowest seeded woman to win a slam in the Open Era.

She was the first Grand Slam champion from Croatia.

Majoli stepped out of retirement, 11 years after her last professional match, to play doubles in Moscow with Anastasia Bukhanko in October 2015.

In 2007, Majoli participated in the second season of the Croatian version of Dancing With The Stars.

Martina Navratilova

Navratilova is the player with the most appearances in WTA Finals history, taking part in 21 editions between 1974 and 1994.

She is also the most successful player at the WTA Finals with eight singles titles – including five in a row from 1983 to 1986.

In 2003, she became the oldest Grand Slam champion, capturing the Australian Open mixed doubles trophy with Leander Paes at the age of 46 years and three months. She broke that record by winning the 2006 US Open mixed title with Bob Bryan, just shy of her 50^th birthday.

She competed on Dancing With The Stars in 2012 partnering Tony Dovolani.

She wrote three mystery novels with Liz Nickles: The Total Zone (1994), Breaking Point (1996), and Killer Instinct (1997).

Mary Pierce

The Frenchwoman was twice runner-up at the WTA Finals, to Jana Novotna in 1997 and to her compatriot Amelie Mauresmo in 2005.

She was born in Montréal, Canada (to an American father and French mother), played for France, and now lives in Mauritius.

When she won her second major, and first French Open title in 2000, she was the first Frenchwoman to win her home slam since 1967. No French player has won it since.

She made seven appearances at the WTA Finals.

Monica Seles

Seles competed at the WTA Finals nine times between 1989 and 2002.

She won the WTA Finals three times in a row from 1990 to 1992. She lost the 2000 final to Martina Hingis.

She was coached by the late Jelena Gencic, who also mentored a young Novak Djokovic.

Seles became the youngest-ever French Open champion when she won it aged 16 in 1990.

She won nine Grand Slam singles titles, eight of which were captured before her 20^th birthday.

She took Olympic bronze in singles in Sydney 2000.

Also made a guest appearance as herself on the TV show, The Nanny.

Tamarine Tanasugarn

The California-born Thai trailblazer holds a Master’s of Business Administration from Bangkok University and this year enrolled to become an officer in the Royal Thai Police Force.

She owns four WTA titles and made the Wimbledon quarter-finals in 2008 where she lost to eventual champion Venus Williams. Her career-high ranking of No19, reached in 2002, is the highest ever achieved by a Thai female player.

She won two doubles title partnering Maria Sharapova in 2003 in Luxembourg and Tokyo. They also played together in the 2004 Australian Open.

She was Thailand’s flag-bearer at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta.

Her father was a basketball player and competed at the 1960 and 1964 Games.

Yayuk Basuki

Basuki qualified to the WTA Finals in doubles three times with Dutchwoman Caroline Vis from 1996-1998.

Basuki and Vis beat top seeds Martina Hingis and Jana Novotna in their first match at the WTA Finals in 1998.

She is the highest-ranked tennis player ever from Indonesia, hitting a career-high No.19 in 1997. Was ranked as high as No.9 in doubles.

She admired Jimmy Connors growing up and her favorite athlete is swimmer Janet Evans.

She has won four Asian Games gold medals.

All photos courtesy of Getty Images

LINZ, Austria – Top seed Garbiñe Muguruza retired in the deciding set to hand Viktorija Golubic a semifinal spot at the Generali Ladies Linz.

Muguruza had narrowly taken the first set, 7-5.

Golubic struck back 6-3 in the second set, though, having raced to a 4-0 lead as she broke the Muguruza serve twice.

And after Muguruza suffered a fall and sustained an apparent sprain to her ankle, she looked less and less comfortable, eventually withdrawing with the score at four games all in the deciding set.

MELBOURNE, Australia – The bottom half of the draw is back in action led by Serena Williams, Agnieszka Radwanska and Karolina Pliskova. We preview all the day’s matchups right here at wtatennis.com.

Thursday, Second Round

[2] Serena Williams (USA #2) vs Lucie Safarova (CZE #61)
Head-to-head: Serena leads 9-0
Key Stat: Serena is contesting the Australian Open for the 17^th time – the joint-most along with sister Venus Williams

Lucie Safarova saved an astonishing nine match points in her opening match against Yanina Wickmayer, a two-hour three-set marathon. But unfortunately for the Czech, it doesn’t get any easier in the second round, where she’ll need all that grit against six-time champion Serena Williams.

The last time these two met was at the final of the French Open back in 2015, with this early encounter a testament to the pair’s diverging career paths. Serena is now seeking her record breaking 23^rd Grand Slam title in Melbourne and Safarova, a former World No.5, plummeting out of the Top 50 after struggling with injury and illness.

“I didn’t come here to lose in the first round, or the second round, or at all,” Serena told press earlier in the tournament. “I’m just here to play and to win obviously, but just to play.”

 [3] Agnieszka Radwanska (POL #3) vs Mirjana Lucic-Baroni (CRO #79)
Head-to-head: Radwanska leads 2-0
Key Stat: Lucic-Baroni is 3-14 against Top 5 players

The last time Mirjana Lucic-Baroni won a match in Melbourne it was 1998 – Martina Hingis was the WTA World No.1 and Serena Williams hadn’t yet won her first career title.

But there’s not much time for the former Wimbledon semifinal to revel in the three-set comeback win over Wang Qiang, because up next is World No.3 Agnieszka Radwanska.

A two-time semifinalist here, Radwanska faced a battle in her opener against Tsvetana Pironkova but saved her best for last to move into the second round for the ninth time in her career. The Pole is hoping to continue that run and bring her signature mix of skill and creativity to the second week of this Slam.

“I really feel good on this center court,” Radwanska said in press. “I like to play here, I like Australia. I’ve been always playing good tennis here, two semis.

“Of course, that’s always very close till the end. Hopefully I can do one step forward and play seven matches here.”

[5] Karolina Pliskova (CZE #5) vs [Q] Anna Blinkova (RUS #189)
Head-to-head: First meeting
Key Stat: This is Blinkova’s first ever match against a Top 10 opponent

No.5 seed Karolina Pliskova barely broke a sweat in her Melbourne opener, making quick work of Spain’s Sara Sorribes Tormo and needing just one hour and dropping two games en route to the second round.

But she still wasn’t completely satisfied after the 6-2, 6-0 victory:

“I think there are more things which I want to improve. First round, it’s always tricky, and I didn’t feel that good in the first set there.

“I was a little bit nervous in the beginning, made a lot of mistakes on my forehand, especially no first serves. So this I want to improve high percentage of the first serve, definitely.”

It’s a scary prospect that the WTA’s undisputed ace leader still wants to improve her serve. But that’s what Russian qualifier Anna Blinkova will be up against in her first ever match against a Top 10 opponent.

Blinkova might be slightly out of her depths against big-hitting Pliskova, but don’t count her out just yet: she started her Australian Open main draw campaign with a statement win over the No.32-ranked Monica Niculescu.  

Around the grounds…

No.6 seed Dominika Cibulkova continues her quest for a maiden Slam in her second round clash against Taipei’s Hsieh Su-Wei. Cibulkova leads their head-to-head 1-0, but they haven’t played in almost three years. Also in action, Naomi Osaka will look for Grand Slam revenge against No.9 seed Johanna Konta. The Brit won the pair’s only previous encounter, which came in the second round of qualifying at the 2015 US Open. No.17 seed Caroline Wozniacki is hoping for another comfortable win in her rematch against Donna Vekic, who’s into the second round of a Grand Slam for the first time since 2015 French Open. Meanwhile, No.22 seed Daria Gavrilova carries home hopes in her second round clash against 19-year-old Ana Konjuh. Gavrilova is one of two Aussies remaining in the draw.

LINZ, Austria – Garbiñe Muguruza has secured her spot at this year’s BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global after becoming the sixth player to qualify for the WTA’s year-end event.

Muguruza is set to make her third consecutive appearance at the WTA Finals in Singapore, having qualified in the doubles field in 2014 with compatriot Carla Suárez Navarro and in both singles and doubles in 2015.

“I am very excited to come back to the WTA Finals in Singapore,” said Muguruza.”Two years ago I made it in doubles, and this will be my second year in a row playing singles – both times I had a great experience and am happy to be going back. There are still matches to be played before the Finals, so I want to keep going here in Linz.”

Last year, the Spaniard went 3-0 in the round-robin stage of the singles competition, falling to eventual champion Agnieszka Radwanska in the semifinals. She also reached the final in doubles with Suárez Navarro. This year, the 23-year-old joins Angelique Kerber, Serena Williams, Agnieszka Radwanska, Simona Halep and Karolina Pliskova in the singles field with two spots still left up for grabs.

“Congratulations to Garbiñe on qualifying for the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global,” said WTA CEO Steve Simon. “Her fantastic year has solidified her among the eight best players in the world. Last year, she had a fantastic WTA Finals – going undefeated in the tough Round Robin stage – and we are excited to welcome her back to Singapore.”

After a breakout season in 2015, Muguruza kept the momentum rolling into 2016, clinching the biggest title of her career at Roland Garros – highlighted by her win over then World No.1 Serena Williams in the final. The Spaniard became the youngest first-time Grand Slam champion (22 years, 7 months) since Victoria Azarenka won the 2012 Australian Open aged 22 years, 6 months.

Other season highlights include two semifinal appearances at the Internazionali BNL d’Italia and the Western & Southern Open, and three quarterfinal runs at the Qatar Total Open , Porsche Tennis Grand Prix and the Toray Pan Pacific Open.

The current Road to Singapore Leaderboard as follows (as of October 10, 2016):

MELBOURNE, Australia – No.17 seed Caroline Wozniacki had little trouble in her straight-sets win against Donna Vekic, playing solid tennis to ease through 6-1, 6-3 in the second round of the Australian Open.

But Wozniacki will be happy with wrapping up the comfortable victory in just under an hour and twenty minutes, because awaiting in Round Three is the very in-form Johanna Konta.

The former No.1 got off to a strong start against Vekic, ruthlessly punishing any weak serve that came her way to rocket up to a double break lead. The Croat did her best to hang in there, occasionally foraying to the net and peppering her game with drop shots.

“I feel really good body-wise and mentally, which is huge for me,” Wozniacki said in her post-match press conference. “Patches of my matches have been really good. I thought I started off pretty well today. In the end, maybe a little bit too passive. But generally, I think it was steady and played pretty decent.”

Wozniacki struggled with her ball toss throughout the match under the bright midday sun on Rod Laver Arena, and a pair of double faults in the same game gave Vekic a chance to break back at 4-1, wrong-footing Wozniacki with her inside-out forehand winners. The momentary lapse did nothing to halt the Dane’s momentum and she got right back on track in the next game, breaking back and serving out the set comfortably.

She broke three more times in the final set, absorbing Vekic’s pace and rhythm to force the errors, which came fast and thick towards the end of the match. After just an hour and 18 minutes she made her way to the third round of the Australian Open for the first time since 2014.

The former No.1 was just too solid, hitting 21 winners to 9 unforced errors against Vekic’s 23 winners and 32 unforced errors. The Dane was also a force at the net, winning 80% of her 15 forays to the net.

She’ll look to continue that form against Konta, her opponent in the third round.

“She plays really well, you know, big forehand, big serve,” Wozniacki said. “But I’m ready. I’m playing well. I’m excited for the challenge.

“She’s obviously won last week in Sydney. She had a good last year. I’m here to fight. I’m here to do my best, and try and win the match.”

Caroline #Wozniacki is through to 3R #AusOpen pic.twitter.com/kJ0BoDLFFo

— #AusOpen (@AustralianOpen) 19 de enero de 2017

SINGAPORE – A late-season surge paved the way to the BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore presented by SC Global for Karolina Pliskova. However, the Czech, whose appearance is the culmination of a steady climb up the tennis ladder, is far from a one-hit wonder…

1) American dream
Pliskova impressed at the US Open this year. Playing in her 18th career Grand Slam, Pliskova advanced to the second week for the first time in her career. She saved match point against Venus Williams to make it to the quarterfinals, she shocked Serena Williams in the semifinals – and then came up just short in a thrilling final against Angelique Kerber.

2) Doing the double
Pliskova became the eighth woman ever to defeat both Williams sisters in the same tournament, and the fourth to do it at a major tournament. “There is not much better than to beat both sisters in one tournament in New York,” Pliskova said. “I’m really excited about those two wins.”

3) Victory over Venus
Pliskova’s win over Venus will have given her a smidge of satisfaction – it was the older Williams sister who beat her 7-5, 7-6(6) in the final at the WTA Elite Trophy Zhuhai at the end of 2015.

4) Debut delight
Pliskova is making her debut in the WTA Finals after coming very close in 2015. Her run of form across tournaments in US Open, Nottingham and Cincinnati helped guide her qualification to Singapore. In addition to competing in singles, Pliskova will team up with Julia Goerges as one of the Top 8 doubles teams in the world competing at the WTA Finals.

5) Ranking rise in 2016
Pliskova rose to World No.6 after reaching the US Open final and nearly one month later made her Top 5 debut on October 10, 2016. In early August, she was ranked No.18.

6) Impressive climb
Her 2016 breakthrough has been the culmination of a steady climb up the ranks. Last year Pliskova finished just outside the Top 10 – having finished just outside the Top 20 the year before.

7) Twin magic
She and her sister Kristyna became the first twins ever to win a WTA doubles title in 2013 at Linz when they beat Gabriela Dabrowski and Alicja Rosolska in the final, 7-6 6-4.

8) Spot the difference
It’s easy to tell the Pliskova twins apart when they’re on court – Karolina plays right-handed, Kristyna left. You could also check their tattoos: Karolina has two Polynesian-style tattoos, one on her left thigh and on her left arm. Kristyna has one Polynesian-style tattoo on the inside of her left arm.

9) Top tournament
Pliskova lists her favorite tournament as the Australian Open, where she won as a junior; and in recent years, she has posted consecutive third-round appearances.

10) Sublime serve
Pliskova’s serve is perhaps her most well-known weapon. For the second consecutive year she has hit more than 500 aces, leading the WTA in both 2015 (517 aces) and 2016 (508). She also ranked second on the WTA in first serve points won (74.6%), trailing only Serena Williams (75.7%).