ANGELIQUE KERBER CULMINA LAS 8 DEL ABIERTO DE ESTAMBUL 2013.

By virtue of her win in the quarterfinals of the Generali Ladies Linz on Friday, Angelique Kerber has secured the eighth and final spot in the singles field at the TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships - Istanbul, which runs from October 22 to 27 - just a week and a half away... For the second year in a row - and just the second year in the 42-year history of the event - each of the eight players in the singles field will represent a different country: 

Serena Williams (United States), 
Victoria Azarenka (Belarus), 
Agnieszka Radwanska (Poland), 
Li Na (China), 
Petra Kvitova (Czech Republic), 
Sara Errani (Italy), 

Jelena Jankovic (Serbia) and finally Angelique Kerber (Germany). 

 The singles draw ceremomy will be held at 6pm on Sunday, October 20, and can be viewed right here on wtatennis.com via WTA Live. The two alternate positions will be determined in the current and upcoming WTA events this and next week, and will also be announced prior to the draw ceremony. The Top 8 singles players and Top 4 doubles teams will compete in Istanbul for a record-setting $6 million prize money purse and the most prestigious title on the WTA calendar after the Grand Slams.
 "Congratulations to Angelique on her qualification for the TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships. She will be a great addition to this year's player field," said WTA Chairman & CEO Stacey Allaster.
 "If Istanbul's debut staging of the Championships was stunning, last year's was even better, and I have no doubt the best will be saved for last. This has truly been a People's Championships and our players are ready to show their best tennis in front of the amazing Turkish fans for the third and final time.
" Having never finished inside the Top 30 beforehand, Kerber had an absolute breakthrough 2012 season - she finished the year No.5 - and now she's on the verge of another Top 10 finish after an impressively consistent 2013 season. The German has reached two finals (Monterrey and Tokyo), four semifinals (Sydney, Indian Wells, Stuttgart and Linz - still going on), and another four quarterfinals.
 "I'm so excited to be returning to Istanbul for the TEB BNP Paribas WTA Championships. The fans last year were amazing and I look forward for the chance to play against the best players in the world." The teams in the doubles field at the season finale will be Errani and Roberta Vinci, Peng Shuai and Hsieh Su-Wei, Nadia Petrova and Katarina Srebotnik, and Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina. 
 Following two successful, record-breaking editions, Istanbul hosts the WTA Championships for the third and final year in 2013. In 2012, the tournament attracted more than 73,000 fans during six days of competition, the highest attendance at the year-end event since 2000. Broadcast coverage reached 167 countries, and the overall hours produced increased 25 percent, including live matches, match replays and highlights. Nearly 42 million fans followed the on-court and behind-the-scenes action via WTA social media and digital platforms, and it was a record-setting week for the official WTA website that week, with approximately 4.8 million page impressions and nearly 500,000 unique visitors.