Tennis: Clijsters wins third WTA Championship

Kim Clijsters has upstaged world No.1 Caroline Wozniacki to capture the WTA Championship in Doha.

Clijsters overcame a mid-match lapse to score a 6-3 5-7 6-3 win in Sunday's final to become the fifth player in the tournament's 38-year history to snare three season-ending titles.

The 27-year-old Belgian went back-to-back when the event was held in LA in 2002-03 and only all-time greats Martina Navratilova (8), Steffi Graf (5) and Chris Evert (4) have won more tour championships.

Monica Seles also won three.

Clijsters's victory earned her a fifth title of the year - one less than Wozniacki's tour-best half-dozen - and 40th of her career and solidified her season-ending ranking of No.3 in the world behind the Dane and Russian Vera Zvonareva.

She also pocketed a cheque for $US1.45 million ($A1.49 million), taking her all-time earnings to $US21,431,916 in prize money.

Making her victory even more meritorious was the fact this was Clijsters's first tournament since winning her third US Open crown six weeks ago.

And Clijsters beat Wozniacki by generally doing everything better than what the Dane supposedly does best.

Wozniacki is renowned as the premier defensive player on tour but in reality Clijsters is superior in that department and also delivers more powerful groundstrokes off both wings.

The tennis supermum took charge of the final from the opening point, breaking Wozniacki in the very first game of the match.

Clijsters - who escaped shaken but otherwise unscathed from a car crash before her semi-final win on Saturday over Australian Samantha Stosur - wrapped up the first set and looked in total command leading 4-1 in the second.

But aided by a lapse from Clijsters, Wozniacki fought back to win seven of the next eight games, taking the set and establishing a 1-0 lead with a break in the decider.

The youngest year-end No.1 since Martina Hingis a decade ago, 20-year-old Wozniacki had all the momentum but Clijsters stayed cool and broke straight back, then surged to a 5-2 lead before closing out the match after two hours, 19 minutes.

- AAP