Kvitova moves to No. 2 in women's tennis

Petra Kvitova has ridden the WTA Championships title to the world No. 2 ranking. Kvitova beat Victoria Azarenka 7-5, 4-6, 6-3 Sunday in taking the championships in Istanbul, Turkey. It capped a year in which Kvitova, 21, won six tournaments, with a Wimbledon championship to go with the WTA Championships as the biggest prizes, was 58-13 and collected more than $5 million. Before 2011 she'd only one won tournament and had about $1 million in winnings over four years as a professional. She pulled very close to unseating Caroline Wozniacki from the No. 1 ranking. Wozniacki, who has been No. 1 the last 46 weeks and 64 weeks altogether, won one match at the WTA Championships. That secured the year-end No. 1 ranking but her rankings point total dropped to 7,485, just 115 ahead of Kvitova. Azarenka moves from fourth to third in the rankings with 6,520 points. Maria Sharapova, hobbled with an ankle injury the last weeks of the season, drops from second to fourth with 6,510 points. Li Na (5,720) remained fifth but Samantha Stosur switches places with Vera Zvonareva. Stosur, now sixth, has 5,585 points and Zvonareva has 5,435, which is seventh. Agnieszka Radwanska (5,250) is eighth ahead of Marion Bartoli (4,710) and Andrea Petkovic (4,580). Bartoli is among the eight women invited to the Commonwealth Bank Tournament of Champions in Indonesia this week.