The WTA announced that two cities in Asia, one in Europe, and another in North America are the final four candidates in bidding to host the WTA Championships for 2014 and beyond. The candidate cities are Kazan, Russia; Mexico City, Mexico; Singapore; and Tianjin, China.
The tournament’s three-year contract with Istanbul, Turkey, expires next year. Istanbul did not make a new bid despite the tournament having near sell-outs or sell-outs at every session this year.
None of the aforementioned cities currently host tournaments, but with the exception of Singapore, all of those cities are in countries that currently have WTA Tournaments. The WTA claims that 43 cities were interested in hosting the Championships.
aRio de Janeiro, Brazil, which will host the upcoming World Cup and Olympics and was thought to be a frontrunner to host the WTA Championships, did express interest, but did not come up with a strong enough bid. The winning city will be announced in the spring of 2013.