SINGAPORE -- The WTA Finals ended on a surprising note, with Dominika Cibulkova beating top-ranked Angelique Kerber 6-3, 6-4 for the title. The Slovakian ended a remarkable season by Kerber, who won two Grand Slam trophies and reached the final of a third.

With the win, Cibulkova moved up to the No. 5 ranking in the world and showed she will be a legitimate threat moving forward. Here's what else we learned during the weeklong year-end championships:

1. Women's tennis has never been more exciting: Yes, it's more exciting and unpredictable than the ATP. These WTA Finals were a roller-coaster ride from start to finish because of the competitiveness between the players. Svetlana Kuznetsova only qualified by winning the Kremlin Cup final the day before the WTA Finals kicked off in Singapore, and both she and Karolina Pliskova had to save match points to win their opening round-robin matches. Cibulkova snuck into the semifinals despite losing two round-robin matches, but it could just as easily have been Simona Halep or Madison Keys in her place. From start to finish, the WTA Finals were filled with exciting, topsy-turvy matches.

The smallest player in the WTA Finals field, Dominika Cibulkova played big-time tennis down the stretch in Singapore. ROSLAN RAHMANROSLAN RAHMAN/AFP/Getty Images

2. Despite the loss, Kerber could be a long-term successor to Serena Williams: Despite losing the final to an inspired Cibulkova, Kerber only enhanced her growing reputation. Oozing with confidence and comfortable with her new status, the 28-year-old navigated her way to the final with clinical efficiency, dealing with everything that came her way. Even in the final, when Cibulkova played the match of her life, Kerber almost pulled it out of the fire, saving three match points before Cibulkova got a lucky break with a net cord that ended the contest.

3. The days of wunderkinds winning Grand Slams could be a way off: Serena may have won her first major as a teenager, but her biggest legacy may end up being inspiring older women to stick at it for longer. Although the grueling round-robin nature of the WTA Finals should in theory benefit younger players, it instead favored the more experienced brigade. The four youngest players in the tournament were all eliminated after the round-robin phase, and the four semifinalists were all 27 and older.

4. Madison Keys is a work in progress, but the wait could be worth it: Still just 21, she was the youngest player to qualify and clearly has all the weapons to dominate her opponents, with a thunderbolt serve and ferocious groundstrokes. The trick for her now is to get her temperament right, but she appears to have a good head on her shoulders. She admitted that her nerves got the better of her at times in Singapore but was mature enough to recognize that's an area she needs to fix. She also took note of what was happening on the other side of the net, watching how the older European players went about their business and consoling herself in the knowledge they also took their time before breaking through.

5. There's still a place in the game for smaller players: At 5-foot-3, Cibulkova could be riding in the Kentucky Derby if she weren't such a good tennis player. But what she lacks in height she makes up for with sheer tenacity, with aggressive groundstrokes and never giving up, fetching more balls than a golden retriever. Hers was a win for the sport's romantics, overcoming seemingly insurmountable odds to win the biggest tournament of her life at a time when most everyone is resigned to thinking that big is better.