On October 20, the final spot went to the Russian pairing of Maria Kirilenko and Nadia Petrova after defeating co-contenders Raquel Kops-Jones and Abigail Spears in the semifinals of the Kremlin Cup  Maria Kirilenko and Nadia Petrova compiled a solid season. They won in their first final of the year at the Sony Ericsson Open defeating the Italian pairing of Errani and Vinci 7–6(7–0), 4–6, [10–4]. They reached their first slam final as a team at the French Open once again facing Errani and Vinci, but this time they lost 6–4, 4–6, 2–6. They once again faced Errani and Vinci for the third time in a final in the UNICEF Open, but once again fell short losing 4–6, 6–3, [9–11]. At the Olympics, the Russians claimed the bronze medals defeating Americans Huber and Raymond. Petrova paired with Vania King at the Mercury Insurance Open and reached the final losing to Kops-Jones and Spears 2–6, 4–6. Petrova also reached another final, this time with Katarina Srebotnik at the Rogers Cup losing to Klaudia Jans-Ignacik and Mladenovic 5–7, 6–2, [7–10]. The 2012 edition of the year-end championships featured three current or former World number ones, five Grand Slam champions, two Grand Slam finalists. Two competitors made their debut at the championships. The competitors were divided into two groups representing the colors of the flag of Turkey. The Red group consisted of no. 1 seed Victoria Azarenka, no. 3 seed Serena Williams, no. 5 seed Angelique Kerber and no. 8 seed Li Na. The White Group was composed of no. 2 seed Maria Sharapova, no. 4 seed Agnieszka Radwańska, no. 6 seed Petra Kvitová and no. 7 seed Sara Errani. Samantha Stosur and Marion Bartoli served as alternates. In the red group, their respective records in their group, World no. 1 Victoria Azarenka was 7–14, Serena Williams was 16–3, Angelique Kerber was 2–8 and Li Na was 10–10. Leading the group Azarenka, has a poor record against Williams being 1–10 lifetime against her and having lost their last eight encounters, 4 times in 2012.