Pretty big (tennis) shoes for Shenzhen to fill

WE are just six days removed from the end of the WTA Finals tennis championships in Singapore, and I still haven't fully come to terms that the tournament's five-year stay in the Lion City is really over.

Last Sunday night, on centre court inside a packed Indoor Stadium, Elina Svitolina - a gritty 24-year-old from Ukraine - wrote herself into the sport's history books as the last-ever WTA Finals champion to be crowned in Singapore.

This after she outlasted a fellow tournament debutant one year her senior, Sloane Stephens of the United States, in a three-set thriller chock-full of heart-stopping moments and brilliant rallies that were more than deserving to grace the championship match.