WTA Tour Finals: Serena Williams leads the field of the world's top eight players in Singapore

The best women tennis players across the globe have gathered or the traditional end-of-season event with Serena Williams hot favourite to claim a personal hat-trick of WTA Tour Finals in Singapore.

The world No 1, who also won the tournament in 2001 and 2009, is on course for a third consecutive season-ending title following victories in the last two years.

The top eight players of the season have qualified for this elite event with hot-favourite Williams joined by Maria Sharapova, Petra Kvitova, Simona Halep, Eugenie Bouchard, Agnieszka Radwanska, Ana Ivanovic and Caroline Wozniacki along with eight doubles teams.

The action will be held at the Singapore Indoor Stadium which has a capacity of 10,000 and takes over from Istanbul following an exclusive five-year deal to stage the tournament.

The singles players are split into two groups of four with the top two in each qualifying for the semi-finals.

Williams, Halep, Bouchard and Ivanovic make up the Red group, with Sharapova, Kvitova, Radwanska and Wozniacki in the White pool.

The 44th edition of the event has expanded by a day this season. The group stage will now be played across five days rather than four and the semi-finals take place on Saturday with the final on Sunday.

Monday action

Williams, who is playing in her ninth WTA Finals will begin her campaign against Ivanovic on Monday afternoon looking to become the first woman to win three in a row since Monica Seles.

The US Open champion and 18-time grand slam winner has leads her seventh-ranked opponent 7-1 in head-to-head meetings and has also won her last 15 matches at the WTA Finals.

I don't care who I play, to be perfectly honest with you. You can put me against anybody at this point, I'm ready.

The Serb, who has won 56 main draw matches this season, won't be deterred by taking on the tournament favourite having beaten her for the first time at the Australian Open this year before pushing her to the limit in Stanford.

The only cloud hanging over Williams concerns her fitness following her withdrawal from the WTA Beijing tournament earlier this month due to a knee injury. Williams, though, said she was ready to play.

"I don't care who I play, to be perfectly honest with you. You can put me against anybody at this point, I'm ready," she said after the draw.

"I really can't wait for my match."

The pair are joined in the red group by debutantes Halep and Bouchard, who play each other in the later match.

These two have split their two career meetings with the Romanian winning at Indian Wells but the Canadian exacted her revenge in the Wimbledon semi-finals.

"I totally feel like I belong. I think my year this year has proved that," Bouchard told the WTA website. "I feel like I've been able to play well, raise my level in big matches, at late stage of Grand Slams. So therefore, I've earned the right to be here. I feel like so excited to be here."

French Open champion Sharapova takes on US Open runner-up Wozniacki on Tuesday before Wimbledon winner Kvitova takes on crafty Pole Radwanska in the other clash in the white group.