The season-ender is still a showcase of the best talent - just without the excitment [GALLO/GETTY]

Although it's not the most prestigious tournament of the year, most players would state reaching the Sony Ericsson Championships as their top goal for the season and, as form would suggest, the top eight in the rankings are all present.

But it's difficult to see quite why the organisers of this tournament think the round robin format is a good idea.

No other tournament in the 10-month long season uses a group stage, where each player plays each other once. In a group of four, the top two then move through to the semi-finals where the format reverts to the traditional knockout style.

In the 1970s, the tournament involved the top 16 players in a straight knockout draw.

Surely the intensity of having just one match to win made for a better competition?

No thrills

The current round robin format means that a player can lose even two matches at this stage and still make it through to the semi-finals, depending on number of sets won and lost. Where is the thrill in that?

True, a round robin format means that the top players are showcased at least three times during the week-long tournament, which is theoretically a draw for the crowds.

But seeing the extent of support in Doha, this is not the case.

Would a straightforward win-every-match structure not mean players are fighting for every point to progress further into the week?

There have certainly been some spectacular matches this week: Dementieva overcoming Venus for the first time in 5 years; Wozniacki coming back from the dead against Azarenka; Serena saving match point, again against Venus.

But there have also been some dreadful performances. Thanks to Safina's retirement and subsequent withdrawal through injury, Jankovic still has the chance of progressing, which after her dire showing against Azarenka looked all but impossible.

And spare a thought for Safina's replacement and fellow Russian Zvonereva, who will struggle to make it through the semi-final knockout stage and will therefore lose a great deal of ranking points after her runner-up performance last year.

A miserable performance by Jankovic, but she is still in contention [GALLO/GETTY]

The need to perform on the top of one's game is much diminished in this form of competition, and, despite a large kitty as an incentive to win, defeat can have a great deal of influence on the outcome of the group stages without affecting the losing player.

What the WTA tour need to do is play the top eight players against the next eight in a knockout stage, making victory essential for progression.

Will it improve the quality of tennis? Possibly not, but it will certainly add to the excitement factor.

The men face a similar task in London at the end of November, but the layout of the matches is slightly different, with only two matches in a day (afternoon and evening), and the tournament lasting 8 days.

If the women's tour is determined to have a round robin, maybe they should alter the schedule and fill the stadium. For a change.