French tennis player Amelie Mauresmo can no longer end the year number-one but she still has a chance to retain her WTA Championship title in Madrid.
The top-seeded Mauresmo rallied from a first set loss to defeat Switzerland's Martina Hingis, 3-6, 6-1, 6-4. That sets up a key Yellow Group match against Belgium's Justine Henin-Hardenne who beat Russian Nadia Petrova in round-robin play, 6-4, 6-4.
Mauresmo needs to beat Henin-Hardenne to reach the semifinals of this season-ending event. Henin-Hardenne is still in contention for the year-end number-one ranking with Russian Maria Sharapova, and the Belgian can get the top spot if she reaches the final.
The Red Group match played Thursday was a battle between two former U.S. Open champions, and Kim Clijsters of Belgium easily beat Russian Svetlana Kuznetsova in only 44 minutes, 6-1, 6-1. Sharapova leads that group at 2-0, while Clijsters and Kuznetsova are 1-1 and still alive for the semifinals.
This tournament features the top eight ranked women in the world. The top two finishers in each group after round robin play advance to the semifinals.
Some information for this report provided by AP.