It was the second time the Khalifa International Tennis Complex hosted the WTA Tour Year-End Singles and Doubles Championships.

The Spanish duo of Nuria Llagostera Vives and María José Martínez Sánchez won the doubles event on their debut 7–6(0), 5–7, [10-7].

Nuria Llagostera Vives / María José Martínez Sánchez defeated Cara Black / Liezel Huber, 7-6(7-0), 5–7, [10-7].

Despite a lack of preparation, Williams reached the quarterfinals of the French Open before losing to the eventual champion Kuznetsova 7–6(4), 5–7, 7–5, which ended her 18-match Grand Slam winning streak.

On the 4th of September, Caroline Wozniacki and Elena Dementieva were the third and fourth to qualify, respectively Elena Dementieva has enjoyed a remarkable season that was begun by winning 15 consecutive matches including titles in ASB Classic and Medibank International Sydney where she defeated the top two seeds Serena Williams and Dinara Safina,[14] she then reached the semifinals of the Australian Open losing to eventual champion Serena 6–3 6–4.

Dementieva played one of the most memorable matches on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour in 2009 when she was defeated by Serena Williams in the semifinals of Wimbledon (6–7(4) 7–5 8–6) in a marathon that lasted nearly three hours.

Dementieva's successful hard court season was highlighted by winning the Rogers Cup in Toronto defeating Maria Sharapova 6–4 6–3 in the finals [15] and clinching the title of US Open Series winner.

At the French Open Kuznetsova made easy work on Safina in the final 6–4 6–2 in just 74 minutes despite struggling against Serena and Samantha Stosur the previous rounds.

Venus has an impressive record of 9–2 in the event, and is the defending champion Victoria Azarenka is enjoying her best season so far by reaching a career high no.

On October 22 Jelena Janković claimed the last spot as Radwańska and Zvonareva fell early at the Kremlin Cup.

[35] She withdrew from Internazionali BNL d'Italia, Mutua Madrileña Madrid Open and Roland Garros with a right ankle injury.

This will be Radwańska's second appearance if a second player withdraws she has a 1–0 record at the event On September 9 - Cara Black and Liezel Huber, the defending champions, were the first to qualify for the championships after their runner-up finish at Wimbledon.

Performing consistently during the slams, they had a quarterfinal finish at the Australian Open losing to eventual runners-up Hantuchová and Sugiyama.

They had back-to-back titles at Copa Sony Ericsson Colsanitas defeating Pennetta and Dulko and Abierto Mexicano Telcel in an all Spanish final prevailing over compatriots Domínguez Lino and Parra Santonja.

As well as back-to-back titles at the Rogers Cup prevailing over Stosur and Stubbs and the Pilot Pen event defeating the Czezh team of Benešová and Hradecká.

They also won the Barcelona Ladies Open outlasting Cîrstea and Klepač and Internazionali Femminili di Palermo prevailing over Koryttseva and Kustova.

Each player's respective head-to-head records against one another is as follows: Dinara Safina is 8–4, Caroline Wozniacki is 1–5, Victoria Azarenka is 4-8 and Jelena Janković is 8–4.

With Dinara Safina leading the group, she has a decent head-to-head with each player she is 1–0 against Wozniacki, with their only meeting coming from the Mutua Madrileña Madrid Open finals with Safina winning 6-2 6–4, She also has a very good record against Azarenka leading 4–1 with her only loss to Azarenka coming from this year's Indian Wells Open.

Venus won their first encounter of the year at the Dubai Tennis Championships with Serena winning their last two meetings in Miami and Wimbledon.

[41] The action in the 2009 Year-end championship started in the White Group between debutant Victoria Azarenka and last year's semifinalist Jelena Janković.

But the American, who played with heavy strapping on her left thigh, broke back immediately, Serena then ran away with the first set, breaking again in the sixth and eighth games.

The last match in the round robin stage featured Agnieszka Radwańska who replaced co-alternate Vera Zvonareva and Victoria Azarenka.

Azarenka did suffer a minor blip in concentration towards the end of the first set as she allowed Radwańska one of the breaks back, it was only a temporary lapse as the Belarusian served it out at the second attempt.

The match was just one game into the third set when Azarenka was forced to take a medical timeout to have her left thigh heavily strapped.

Wozniacki's body finally gave up though at the end of the game, the Dane retired from the match citing abdominal injury.

[56] The last doubles semifinal was then played between the Williams sister's Serena and Venus and the Spanish duo of Nuria Llagostera Vives and María José Martínez Sánchez.

Serena progressed to the finals undefeated; beating, Elena Dementieva, Svetlana Kuznetsova and Venus in the group stage.

Venus progressed to the finals after having a bad start, losing close three setters to Serena and Dementieva, whilst defeating Kuznetsova.

1's Cara Black and Liezel Huber taking on the Spanish duo of Nuria Llagostera Vives and María José Martínez Sánchez.

This ended their 6 match losing streak against the Zimbabwean-American duo; making it seventh time lucky to win their biggest title.