There Is Only One Grand Entrance Here

The farewell party for the season-ending WTA Tour Championships at Staples Center has the top three players in the world -- Lindsay Davenport, Kim Clijsters of Belgium and defending champion Maria Sharapova of Russia -- but is noticeably, and strangely, light in another category: Grand Slam tennis champions of 2005.

One of four.

Nice odds, say, for the lottery. But not quite the numbers you want for the supposed crown jewel, the season finale of the women’s tour, which starts today and ends Sunday. Clijsters, the U.S. Open champion, is the only one of the four major singles champions to make her way to Los Angeles to play.

“Oh, there’s three [missing], that’s right,” said Davenport. “I just thought two. God, three. That’s terrible. I didn’t realize that.”

Wimbledon champion Venus Williams and Australian Open winner Serena Williams took themselves out of contention by turning in their ’05 tour time cards early, citing injuries, though their ailments apparently won’t jeopardize their three-city promotional tour in November and December.

Additionally, French Open winner Justine Henin-Hardenne of Belgium, who did qualify, couldn’t make it here on the court, citing a lack of preparation. She will be in Los Angeles later in the tournament for promotional activities, officials said.

The high-profile work stoppages ultimately affected the marquee value of the up-and-down tournament, which seemed to turn a corner in 2004, and picked up buzz with Sharapova’s three-set win over Serena Williams in the final. This is the fourth and final year in Los Angeles; the event moves to Madrid next year.

Solutions aren’t easy. The format was changed to a more forgiving round-robin in Year 2 at Staples Center. The prize money is impressive -- $1 million to the winner.

But even, say, giving a Slam winner an automatic spot in the eight-player singles field wouldn’t be an automatic solution.

“I don’t think it would have necessarily changed anything about this year’s tournament,” Davenport said. “There’s nothing you can do. You can’t force someone to go out on the court when they don’t feel like they want to compete at this level.”

The underlying subplot is the race for the season-ending No. 1 ranking. Davenport, who has won six titles in 2005, landed in the same foursome, the Green Group, as No. 3 Sharapova, singles newcomer Nadia Petrova of Russia and Patty Schnyder of Switzerland.

In the Black Group are Clijsters, Mary Pierce of France, Amelie Mauresmo of France and Elena Dementieva of Russia. Should Davenport, 29, finish the year ranked No. 1, it would be the fourth time she has done so in her long career.

So much for the constant retirement questions.

“It’s a great goal to have and a great incentive to go this week,” said Davenport, who has tentatively planned her schedule through Miami next spring.

“If it doesn’t happen, it’s not something that’s going to worry me all too much. Kim totally deserves it, whatever happens here. She’s got something crazy like [nine] titles and a Grand Slam title, that’s a pretty good record.”

The defending champion could prove to be a formidable obstacle. Sharapova, who reached the semifinals in three of the four Slams this year, is recovering from a strained right thumb, keeping her out of last week’s Philadelphia tournament. She hurt it in the gym during a workout.

“Great story,” she said, laughing. “I was just so tired. It was totally my own fault. I hit myself right in the leg and I jammed my thumb. It was all blue and black. It was not pretty. I couldn’t hold the racket the next day. There’s always something that’s happening, just one after the other.”

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Court in session

The WTA Championships begin today with three matches starting at 6 p.m. and the second not before 7:30 p.m. The top eight singles and four doubles teams qualified:

THE FACTS

* Green Group: Lindsay Davenport, Maria Sharapova, Patty Schnyder, Nadia Petrova.

* Black Group: Kim Clijsters, Amelie Mauresmo, Mary Pierce, Elena Dementieva.

* Format: The top eight singles players are split into two groups and will compete in a round-robin format. Each player will play every other player within a group (a total of three matches per player). The top two finishers in each group advance to single-elimination semifinals and final. Doubles: The top four doubles teams will compete in single-elimination semifinals with two teams advancing to the final.

* Prize money: $3 million (singles winner receives $1 million).

THE SCHEDULE