Toyota Championships

Toyota Championships
Defunct tennis tournament
Event name	Colgate Series Championships (1977–81) Toyota Championships (1981–82)
Tour	WTA Tour (1977–82)
Founded	1977
Abolished	1982
Location	Palm Springs, CA, U.S. Landover MD, U.S. East Rutherford, NJ, U.S.
Surface	Hard, Carpet

The Toyota Championships were the finales in an annual series of professional women's tennis tournaments for women from 1977 through 1982. They were a continuation of the earlier Colgate Series Championships (1977-80) They were the fall season finales of the Colgate Series, then later Toyota International Series circuits. They operated in much the same way as the men's WCT Circuit which also had WCT seasonal finals held in the fall or winter. The championships were discontinued when Virginia Slims became the year-round sponsor of the Women's Tennis Association Tour in 1983. The best singles and doubles players of the circuit, based on ranking points earned, qualified for the championships.

The main full season finales were, called the Virginia Slims Championships in 1972-78, then the Avon Championships in the 1979-82 period, then the Virginia Slims Championships again from 1983 to 1989. In 1990 a single unified women's circuit began, with a rebranded year end championship event called the WTA Tour Championships (today known as the WTA Finals)

Finals

Singles

Series Year	Series-Ending Tournament	Location	Surface	Champion	Runner-up	Score
1977	Colgate Series Championships	Palm Springs, California, U.S.	Hard	Chris Evert	Billie Jean King	6–2, 6–2
1978	Colgate Series Championships	Palm Springs, California, U.S.	Hard	Chris Evert	Martina Navratilova	6–3, 6–3
1979	Colgate Series Championships	Landover, Maryland, U.S.	Carpet	Martina Navratilova	Tracy Austin	6–2, 6–1
1980	Colgate Series Championships	Landover, Maryland, U.S.	Carpet	Tracy Austin	Andrea Jaeger	6–2, 6–2
1981	Toyota Series Championships	East Rutherford, New Jersey, U.S.	Carpet	Tracy Austin	Martina Navratilova	2–6, 6–4, 6–2
1982	Toyota Series Championships	East Rutherford, New Jersey, U.S.	Carpet	Martina Navratilova	Chris Evert	4–6, 6–1, 6–2

Doubles

Series Year	Champions	Runners-up	Score
1977	Françoise Dürr Virginia Wade	Helen Gourlay Cawley Joanne Russell	6–1, 4–6, 6–4
1978	Billie Jean King Martina Navratilova	Wendy Turnbull Kerry Reid	6–3, 6–4
1979	Billie Jean King Martina Navratilova	Chris Evert Rosemary Casals	6–4, 6–3
1980	Rosemary Casals Wendy Turnbull	Candy Reynolds Paula Smith	6–3, 4–6, 7–6
1981	Martina Navratilova Pam Shriver	Rosemary Casals Wendy Turnbull	6–3, 6–4
1982	Martina Navratilova Pam Shriver	Candy Reynolds Paula Smith	6–4, 7–5

See also

• WTA Tour Championships

External links

• WTA official homepage