2008 WTA Tour

2008 WTA Tour

Jelena Janković finished the year as WTA world No. 1 for the first time in her career, though Serena Williams was named the Player of the Year. Janković won four tournaments during the season, including two Tier I events, and finished runner-up at a major at the US Open. Williams won four tournaments during the season, including a major at the US Open, and two Tier I events.
Details
Duration	December 29, 2007 – November 9, 2008
Edition	38th
Tournaments	59
Categories	Grand Slam (4) WTA Championships Summer Olympics WTA Tier I (9) WTA Tier II (14) WTA Tier III (17) WTA Tier IV (13)
Achievements (singles)
Most tournament titles	Serena Williams (4) Dinara Safina (4) Jelena Janković (4)
Most tournament finals	Vera Zvonareva (8)
Prize money leader	Serena Williams (US$3,852,173)
Points leader	Jelena Janković (4,786)
Awards
Player of the year	Serena Williams
Doubles team of the year	Cara Black Liezel Huber
Most improved player of the year	Dinara Safina
Newcomer of the year	Caroline Wozniacki
Comeback player of the year	Zheng Jie
← 2007 2009 →

The 2008 Sony Ericsson WTA Tour was the elite professional tennis circuit organized by the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) for the 2008 tennis season. The 2008 WTA Tour calendar comprises the Grand Slam tournaments (supervised by the International Tennis Federation (ITF)), the WTA Tier I-IV Events, the Fed Cup (organized by the ITF), the year-end championships, and the tennis event at the Beijing Summer Olympic Games.

The season was characterised by its frequent changes in the world No. 1 ranking, with Justine Henin, Maria Sharapova, Ana Ivanovic, Jelena Janković and Serena Williams all holding the position at some point during the season. Janković finished the season as the world No. 1 player despite not winning a Grand Slam tournament. She did however reach the final of the U.S. Open, and won four tournaments throughout the season.

Four players won the Grand Slam titles. Maria Sharapova won her third major title at the Australian Open, Ana Ivanovic won her maiden title at the French Open, Venus Williams won her seventh Grand Slam title at Wimbledon, and Serena Williams won her ninth Grand Slam title at the U.S. Open. Dinara Safina also reached her first Grand Slam final at the French Open, and won four events during the season.

One of the big stories of the year was the shock retirement of Justine Henin on May 14, less than two weeks before she was set to defend her French Open title.^[1] She became the first player to retire while ranked at No. 1 in the world. Henin later returned for the 2010 season.