Singapore (SportsNetwork.com) - World No. 1 superstar Serena Williams and French Open runner-up Simona Halep were a pair of round-robin winners at the season-ending $6.5 million WTA Finals in Singapore.
The U.S. Open champion Williams won the Day 1 nightcap by handling seventh- seeded former No. 1 Ana Ivanovic 6-4, 6-4 on the hardcourts at Singapore Indoor Stadium.
Williams has captured this prestigious eight-player event four times, including the last two years in Istanbul. The American great, who beat Li Na in last year's final, is also a two-time Finals runner-up.
"I'm really excited with how I played tonight," Williams said. "To see all my fans over there was really exciting -- thank you so much!
"I've been working hard and am glad to be here. Today I was really fighting all the way. Ana played so well, I was just trying to fight as hard as I could. I was even losing my voice from shouting 'come on' so much!"
The resurgent Ivanovic is making her first WTA Finals appearance in six years.
"I'm definitely very disappointed that both sets I made few easy errors in the last service game," Ivanovic said. "Especially in the first set, you know. I had a break point in 4-all, which I didn't take and kind of got down a little bit on myself.
"Then I rushed a little bit in the next service game, so that was a little bit disappointing. I felt I created lots of chances, especially off the ground."
The fourth-seeded Halep opened the event Monday with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over fifth-seeded Wimbledon runner-up Eugenie Bouchard. Both Halep and Bouchard are making their WTA Finals debuts this week.
"I played really well and am really happy to have found my game again," Halep said. "I played aggressive at the right times and hit some winners.
"She [Bouchard] is a great player and is very young and will definitely be at the top for a long time."
Tuesday's matches will pit second-seeded French Open champion Maria Sharapova against eighth-seeded U.S. Open runner-up Caroline Wozniacki and third-seeded Wimbledon champ Petra Kvitova versus sixth-seeded Agnieszka Radwanska. Sharapova captured this tournament in 2004 and is a two-time runner-up, while Kvitova was the WTA Finals champ in 2011 and Wozniacki was a finalist in 2010.
Williams (1-0) leads this week's four-player Red Group, which also features Halep (1-0), Bouchard (0-1) and Ivanovic (0-1). Sharapova (0-0) heads up the four-woman White Group, which also features Kvitova (0-0), Radwanska (0-0) and Wozniacki (0-0).
