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

Nuria Llagostera Vives and María José Martínez Sánchez were the defending doubles champions, but they didn't qualify this year.

Elena Dementieva announced her retirement from tennis in the tournament after 13 years of playing and two Grand Slam finals, as well as an Olympic gold medal.

Her best period was after Wimbledon where she won 5 of 7 consecutive tournaments she played, beginning with the e-Boks Sony Ericsson Open where she defeated Klára Zakopalová 6–2, 7–6.

Later she again won two consecutive titles in Tokyo and the China Open defeating Elena Dementieva 1–6, 6–2, 6–3 and Vera Zvonareva 6–3, 3–6, 6–3, respectively.

She won her only title of the year in the PTT Pattaya Open in Thailand as the defending champion, defeating the local Tamarine Tanasugarn in the final 6–4, 6–4.

She reached a consecutive Grand Slam final at the US Open after defeating top seed Caroline Wozniacki in the semifinals, but ended up losing again to the defending champion, this time Kim Clijsters.

Serena Williams began the year by reaching the final of the Medibank International Sydney losing to Elena Dementieva 6–3, 6–2.

In doing so she passed Billie Jean King as sixth in total number of Grand Slam women's singles titles.

She missed a large amount of the clay season including the French Open due to torn muscle in her left foot, which she sustained in Belgium's Fed Cup match against Estonia.

In the grand slams, at the Australian Open Clijsters lost in the third round to Nadia Petrova in the worst loss of her career, losing 6–0, 6–1.

Venus Williams continued to struggle in the Grand Slams outside of Wimbledon as she lost to Li Na in the quarterfinals of the Australian Open 2–6, 7–6, 7–5 despite being two points away from the win.

At the Wimbledon Championships after reaching the final for the past three years, Williams suffered a loss to a then-unknown Tsvetana Pironkova 6–2, 6–3 in the quarterfinals.

Outside of the grand slams Williams had more success as she won back-to-back titles in Dubai Tennis Championships and the Abierto Mexico Telcel, defeating Victoria Azarenka 6–3, 7–5 and Polona Hercog from Slovenia 2–6, 6–2, 6–3, respectively.

Venus then reached the final of the Sony Ericsson Open recording a 15 match winning streak but lost to Kim Clijsters 6–2, 6–1.

After defeating three former world number ones in Justine Henin, Serena Williams, and Jelena Janković, before being beaten by Francesca Schiavone 4–6, 6–7.

She also reached two other finals, in the Family Circle Cup defeating Vera Zvonareva 6–0, 6–3 and in the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix, losing to Justine Henin 6–4, 2–6, 6–1.

On October 9, due to Venus Williams' withdrawal, both Elena Dementieva and Jelena Janković secured a spot in the Year-End Championships.

In the Grand Slams, Elena drew an unseeded Justine Henin and lost to the eventual finalist, 5–7, 6–7 in the second round of the Australian Open.

After an injury Azarenka showed signs of a return to form at the Aegon International, where she was the runner up losing in the final to Ekaterina Makarova 7–6, 6–4.

Her good form from Eastbourne followed into the American hard-court season, winning the Bank of the West Classic by beating top seeded Samantha Stosur 6–2, 6–3 in the semifinals and Maria Sharapova 6–4, 6–1 in the final.

The second alternate was Shahar Pe'er who reached one final in the year, at the Moorilla Hobart International losing to Alona Bondarenko 6–2, 6–4.

Then the pair claimed back-to-back titles in the European clay season at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix and Internazionali BNL d'Italia over the teams of Peschke & Srebotnik and reigning Tour Champions Llagostera Vives & Martínez Sánchez 6–4, 6–2.

They also finished runner-up in four events, at the Barcleys Dubai Tennis Championships, the Aegon International, the Rogers Cup to Dulko & Pennetta and finally the Generali Ladies Linz losing to Czechs Voráčová & Záhlavová-Strýcová.

On October 7, as the Williams Sisters withdrew, the teams of Lisa Raymond & Rennae Stubbs and Vania King & Yaroslava Shvedova qualified.

Lisa Raymond and Rennae Stubbs reunited again and won one title together at the Aegon International beating Peschke and Srebotnik.

They had immediate success as they won Wimbledon beating Vesnina and Zvonareva and the US Open defeating Petrova and Huber, to claim their first grand slam titles.

King also won two other titles with different partners, at the Cellular South Cup with Krajicek defeating Mattek-Sands and Shaughnessy and the Internationaux de Strasbourg with Cornet winning against Kudryavtseva & Rodionova.

In their respective records, the 2010 Wimbledon and US Open finalist Vera Zvonareva was 13–14, Kim Clijsters was 14–5, Jelena Janković was 10–14 and Victoria Azarenka was 5–10.

Against Janković, Zvonareva had an even record of 6–6, with Vera winning their last three encounters, including the Dubai Tennis Championships 6–3, 6–2 and Wimbledon 6–1, 3–0 ret.