By Tramlines (original post on Eurosport here)The ground rumbled, the roof shook, fireworks pierced through the lightless arena, an army of raging drummers leapt into the air before crashing back down on their sorry instruments.
In the corners of the arena, machines coughed up faux smoke that would linger in the atmosphere long after, creating an apocalyptic mist when the players arrived afterwards to more fireworks and flames.
As the light returned, a random two-piece band appeared, plopped down their equipment and, without a second to spare, began to play the most horrifically dainty medley of pop covers ever heard.
Welcome to the WTA Finals, it all said. If there was any doubt in the years beforehand, this edition is the biggest women's-only sporting event on the planet.
The stakes were already high when the prize money had risen to an astonishing $6.5 million to be shared between 8 players plus the doubles teams, a figure dead-equal with the ATP's own flagship event at the O2 Arena in London.
But now it's an event apparently so major that they decided to bestow upon it an opening ceremony.
'Our strategy was really about raising the bar in terms of fan engagement and Singapore is really doing it right,' explained Melissa Pine, the tournament director of the WTA Finals, to Eurosport.com.
A man carrying an oversized tennis ball arrives at the venue of the WTA Finals in Singapore October 20, 2014.
It has been an intriguing process.
Over the past year and a bit, the WTA began the exhausting task of transferring their year-end event to new shores after three years of rowdy, passionate crowds in Istanbul.
In one aspect, the event has actually downsized. The vast Sinan Erdem Dome in Istanbul rivalled even London's O2 for size, bursting at its 15000 capacity on most days in its three-year term.
But while the new arena in the heart of Singapore, which has sold out multiple days, is smaller, everything else has been amped up tenfold.
The entire venue is a new sporting complex that cost well over a billion dollars to create, so events and entertainment peripheral to the tennis have exploded.
On Friday, Mariah Carey will come to town in spite of her malfunctioning vocal cords, the tournament and her concert synchronized deliberately.
It hasn't been perfect.
The opening ceremony itself almost appeared a comical reflection of the tournament so far.
There were moments of genuinely impressive organization and some great ideas, only for a wedding band to stink up the place.
In the same vein, most of the ideas and intentions are slick but not everything has been seamlessly pulled off.
The decision to incorporate the best young stars in their own separate exhibition competition was a bright spark, but some of the main talent is not quite as inspiring. Such is the nature of sport.
Meanwhile, the biggest stroke of genius came with the draw ceremony held inside the famous and endless Marina Bay Sands mall, a red carpet plotting the stars' routes to the podium.
Tennis fans at the WTA Finals
The fans did their part, hundreds arriving hours early for a prime spot close to the players or on the balconies that looked down on the event from up to three stories high.
The event practically drew the usually overloaded mall to a standstill.
It's the turn of the men in two weeks' time. In an almost identical layout, the top eight players fight over the battlefield of two round robin groups at their O2 season-ender.
Two weeks until most realise that it is now painfully inferior to the women's event.
The ATP World Tour Finals are more lucrative, of course. But that is part of the problem.
SINGAPORE - OCTOBER 21: L-R Iva Majoli of Croatia and Marion Bartoli of France sign the wall at their SC Global ...
The perfect storm of Andy Murray's success and all that London offers has bestowed the ATP with an opportunity they haven't turned down. But the result is a tedious, soulless affair with abhorrently high ticket prices despite each session showcasing only one singles match. The result is the worst-value ticket in tennis.
While the ATP is happily doing just enough required to rake in the dollars, the WTA is tirelessly working to create a tennis event that does justice to the final important event of the season and the one tournament run solely by them.
Men's tennis isn't the biggest and most lucrative men's sports in the world yet its final event of the season coasts along in comfort. Women's tennis is the biggest and most popular women's sport in the world by a country mile, yet the WTA has thrown itself head-first out of its comfort zone in order to deliver a memorable event.
Now please, please, just find a better band.
Tumaini Carayol is reporting from the WTA Finals in Singapore. Follow him on Twitter@tumcarayol
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