WTA finals draw: Coco Gauff will meet with Iga Swiatek, Aryna Sabalenka will play with Zheng Qingwen

WTA Finals Draw Arina Sabalenko against the fourth racket of the world Jasmine Paolini as she strives for three victories that will confirm her title as world number one at the end of the year.

Sabalenka will also face Elena Rybakina And Zheng Qingwen in the group stage, which begins on November 2 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

World No. 2 Iga Swiatekwho is hoping to surpass Sabalenka as world number one, will face Coco Gauff, against whom she is 11-1.

She will also face Jessica Pegula, who beat her in the US Open quarterfinalsAnd Wimbledon champion Barbora Krejcikova.

Most recently, Sabalenka and Zheng met in the final of the Wuhan Open, where Zheng broke Sabalenka’s serve to win a set against the Belarusian for the first time. Sabalenka had won three previous meetings, including the 2024 Australian Open final, without dropping a set or her serve.

Sabalenka leads head-to-head with Rybakina 6-3, but Rybakina crushed Sabalenka in their last hard-court meeting, in the Brisbane 2024 final. Rybakina had not played a competitive match since the first round of the US Open and withdrew from numerous tournaments throughout the year due to injury and illness.

However, her early results, including three titles and two finals, qualified her for the year-end tournament.

Sabalenka and Paolini have a 2-2 record, 1-1 on hard courts; Swiatek and Krejcikova are also 2-2, with Krejcikova winning their last two meetings.

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“Swiatek will provide a lot of intrigue”

Analysis of tennis writer Charlie Ecleshare

In the orange group, the main event will be Swiatek meeting Gauff and the opportunity to improve on his terrible personal best.

Swiatek has won 11 of 12 matches against Gauff, including in each of the last two years in this tournament. Swiatek will provide plenty of intrigue as this is her first tournament with the new coach Wim Fissette after breaking up with her trainer with three years of experience Tomas Wiktorovsky earlier this month. She will also be relatively fresh after missing the Asian swing and raising issues with the tennis calendar in the second half of the summer.

Wimbledon champion Krejcikova is a symbol of the group and the tournament as a whole. Having qualified by winning a Grand Slam title rather than by her season-long form, she could have continued her hot streak as she did in London, or put in a more mediocre performance. Pegula, whose overall level is more stable and who will make her Grand Slam final debut, is the last player in the orange group.

The purple group is full of uncertainty beyond world number one Sabalenka, who is the favorite to win the entire tournament. Paolini has played just two tournaments since leaving the US Open at the round of 16 stage, winning three matches in that time, and Rybakina has not played at all since withdrawing from the New York tournament with a lower back injury. All this means that the player most likely to challenge Sabalenka is Olympic gold medalist Zheng, who comes into the competition after a very encouraging season and a very dismal performance against Sabalenka, who she pushed in a tense final in Wuhan. In a tournament that so often hinges on who has the momentum and drive at the end of a long season, Zheng looks like she could upset or upset.

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How is the draw for the WTA Tour Finals?

The eight qualifying players were divided into four pots for the draw. Basket 1 is No. 1 and No. 2, Basket 2 is No. 3 and No. 4, and so on.

These seeds correspond to players’ rankings in the WTA Race, a table that only counts ranking points earned in 2024.

Each player then plays three round-robin matches. The top two players from each group will play in the semi-finals and the winners will meet in the final.

This year, Barbora Krejcikova qualified as eighth, although she was number 12 in the race. Krejcikova won Wimbledon, defeating Jasmine Paolini in the final, and became a Grand Slam champion finishing between numbers 8 and 0. 20 competitors in a race in the year they win their title automatically qualify for the competition.

Who won last year’s tournament?

Iga Swiatek won the 2023 WTA Tour Final. in Cancun, Mexico, defeating Pegula 6-1, 6-0 in the final. The reigning world number two won all five of her matches last year, overtaking Aryna Sabalenka to finish the year as world number one.

Swiatek intends to repeat this feat this year, after Sabalenka overtook her and became the first racket of the world. October 21.

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What is the prize money for the WTA Tour Finals?

The total prize fund is $15.25 million (£11.76 million), a record for the event. Prize money is distributed for each match win and is structured such that the champion will take home $5.15 million (£3.96 million) if he goes through the tournament undefeated and achieves five wins (three round-robin wins, a semi-final win , and then winning the tournament). final).

The winner of the final will receive $2.5 million (£1.9 million) and the winner of each semi-final will receive $1.27 million (£978,000); The prize for winning a round-robin match is US$350,000 (£269,500) and each player receives US$335,000 (£257,900) just for participating in the event.

The prize money is $6 million more than the 2023 Cancun tournament and the winner’s prize is larger than any of the four Grand Slams, the largest of which is the US Open at $3.6 million (£2.77 million) .

Why is the event taking place in Saudi Arabia?

The Saudi Arabian Ministry of Sports and the Saudi Tennis Federation (STF) have entered into a three-year contract for the WTA Tour Finals. in April of this year. Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) already sponsors the ATP and WTA world rankings, and the deal is currently the largest element of the kingdom’s tennis push. Saudi Arabia is planning to host the coveted 1000-level tournament, but plans for that tournament are currently stalled over the most basic principles, including when it will be held and whether it will be a combined tournament involving both ATP, so does the WTA. players play in the same place for the same two weeks. It is not expected to produce any results until at least 2027, if not 2028.

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A deal was close to being concluded in the summer of 2023, but the WTA backed down following harsh criticism of Saudi Arabia’s human rights record and treatment of women by high-profile former players including Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova. This left the WTA scrambling for a host city, eventually settling on Cancun just two months before the event. This led to the tournament is complicated by bad weather and poor organizationplayed in front of a temporary 4,000-seat stadium on a ground that players described as uneven and unpredictable. The long-term agreement promises stability for an event that has faltered since 2020, but has not stopped criticism of the country for criminalizing homosexuality and not giving women equal rights to men.

WTA Chairman Steve Simon said last year Athletic that the Saudi organizers are “as interested as we are in organizing the event and ensuring its attendance.”

With the kingdom’s broader tennis ambitions shrinking (its Masters 1000 bid and $1 billion investment set the sport on fire last year), the event is something of a mutual testing exercise for the PIF and WTA (and ATP). which I will watch with interest). How the players feel, how well they attend, and the reaction of the entire tennis world will all determine both sides’ strategies for further discussions about the future of the sport in the coming months.

How can Swiatek regain first place in the ranking from Sabalenka?

Swiatek will likely have to repeat his 2023 performance and win all five matches: three round-robins, the semi-finals and the final.

If Sabalenka wins all three of her round-robin matches, there will be nothing Swiatek can do to get back to the top. If Swiatek loses once in the group stage, Sabalenka needs two wins out of three; If Swiatek loses twice, Sabalenka only needs one win.

If Sabalenka loses once or twice in the group stage, she can still guarantee that she will end 2024 as world number one by reaching the final of the tournament.

(Best photos of Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff: Getty Images)