Meet the eight contenders and their path to qualification

Aryna Sabalenka leads a star-studded team in Riyadh.

Riyadh will take over as host city at the end of the year WTA Final 2024 from Cancun, Mexico. The Saudi capital will host eight elite women from the WTA tour as they compete for the singles trophy at the week-long event. Eight teams take part in the doubles draw, and 16 players compete for the trophy.

This will be only the second time that a Middle Eastern country will host the prestigious tournament after Doha (2008-2010). Saudi Arabia’s first foray into women’s tennis was the acquisition of rights to the WTA Finals.

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia will host the next three WTA Finals under an agreement signed earlier this year between the WTA and the Saudi Arabian Tennis Federation.

The 2024 WTA Finals will take place from November 2 to 9 and will feature the top eight singles players. The prize money offered by the Saudi Tennis Federation is a record $15.25 million, with further increases in 2025 and 2026. The prize fund for the 2023 WTA Finals, held in Cancun, was $9 million.

Iga Swiatek won the tournament last season, defeating Jessica Pegula 6-1, 6-0 in the final. The victory over the American took place in just 59 minutes. It was a flawless performance from Swiatek, who lifted the trophy without losing a single game in the week-long event.

Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka were the first of the eight to qualify for the tournament. They were followed by Coco Gauff, Elena Rybakina, Jasmine Paolini and Jessica Pegula. Qingwen Zheng and Barbora Krejcikova were the last to qualify and complete the lineup.

Meet the top eight players on the WTA Tour who have booked their tickets to the year-ending and inaugural WTA Finals, which will be held in Riyadh for the first time. The tournament features two world No. 1s, a current one (Sabolenka) and a former one (Swiatek), who are leading the way, although the race for No. 1 is heating up at the end of the year.

Arina Sabalenko

After starting the year off strong by defending her Australian Open title, which she won in 2023, Arina Sabalenko there was a glitch during the mid-season European swings. However, the world number one fought off back-to-back defeats in the mid-season WTA 1000 finals in Madrid and Rome to triumph in the semi-finals in Cincinnati over world number two Swiatek.

The Belarusian went on a winning streak, winning the title at the Cincinnati Open, followed by his first title in New York and his third consecutive Wuhan Open title.

Sabalenka has three appearances in the WTA Finals, and her best result was second place in 2022. She’s currently leading the singles race. and is poised to finish the year at No. 1 after falling to Swiatek last year.

Iga Swiatek

Iga Swiatek She swept the pack in the first phase of the season, winning four WTA 1000 titles as well as her fourth Roland Garros trophy. WTA 1000 level titles were won in Doha, Indian Wells, Madrid and Rome. The titles of Madrid, Rome and Roland Garros followed the Pole one after another.

After winning five titles in the first six months of this year, Swiatek’s momentum has dropped. Despite being the favorite for gold at the Paris Olympics, she walked away with bronze. After three seasons, she split with coach Tomasz Wiktorowski.deciding to wait out the Asian fluctuations after unexpected developments.

Swiatek has made three WTA Finals appearances and won in 2023, but this year she faces an uphill battle to finish the year at No. 1. The first test for Swiatek and new coach Wim Fissette will be the upcoming WTA Finals, which are set to begin.

Coco Gauff

For Coco GauffThe 2024 season has been a mixed bag. The youngest American woman since Serena Williams to win the US Open experienced a change of fortune in 2024. After winning four titles in 2023, the 20-year-old has had to settle for just two titles this season in Beijing and Auckland.

Between the two victories, Gauff played a series of semi-final matches (5), but was unable to convert any of them into a qualification round to the title round. She also reached the last four at the Wuhan Open but lost to Sabalenka despite a one-set lead.

Coco Gauff, world number three, has appeared at the WTA Finals twice, with her best result reaching the semi-finals in 2023. Gauff makes his third trip to the year-end championships and is the youngest player to qualify. The American began to recover, winning 12 of her last 14 matches for the first time and winning the China Open title.

Jasmine Paolini

Jasmine Paolini, a 28-year-old Italian, rose from 30th place in the year-end rankings to the 6th place she currently occupies. Winning the Dubai Tennis Championships, the WTA 1000 tournament in February, was the biggest triumph of her career.

This year Paolini reached the finals of Roland Garros and Wimbledon, which is a huge achievement given her adaptation to different surfaces. She still had until 2024 to reach the fourth round of a Grand Slam tournament.

The plethora of points she earned from her breakthrough in Dubai and reaching the finals at back-to-back tournaments secured her a top spot in the WTA singles finals. Jasmine Paolini will be pulling double duty after qualifying for the doubles draw alongside Italy’s Sara Errani. Paolini and Errani won gold in women’s doubles at the Paris Olympics, giving Italy its first Olympic gold in tennis history.

Elena Rybakina

Things did not go smoothly for Rybakina, as in 2024 she was struggling with illnesses and injuries that were destroying her. Despite the setbacks, she won three titles in the first four months of the season (Abu Dhabi, Brisbane and Stuttgart). In Stuttgart, she denied Swiatek the chance to do it three times in a row, knocking out the Pole in the semi-finals and going up 4-2 in their head-to-head meetings.

The Kazakhstani was also a finalist in Doha and Miami, losing to Swiatek and Danielle Collins respectively. Two months later, in April, Rybakina got her sweet revenge on Swiatek, ending her hopes of a third Porsche in as many years. As is tradition, the winner will take home not only WTA ranking points and prize money, but also a Porsche.

Rybakina, who made her WTA Finals debut in 2023, finished the group stage with a 1-2 score.

Jessica Pegula

Jessica Pegula There was a late summer surge to reach the final eight of the WTA Finals. The American won the National Bank Open in Toronto and then reached the finals in Cincinnati and the US Open, losing to Sabalenka both times. The world number four also won the Ecotrans Ladies Open in Berlin, defeating Anna Kalinskaya in their first meeting since 2019 to take a 2-0 lead in their career meetings.

Between Montreal and New York, Pegula scored 15 wins in 17 matches to earn her third straight berth in the WTA Finals. Her best result was reaching the 2023 WTA finals, where she lost to Swiatek.

Qinwen Zheng

Qinwen Zheng has captured the world’s attention and gone from being a relative unknown to becoming the first Chinese woman in a decade to reach a Grand Slam final at the 2024 Australian Open in January. Zheng emulated compatriot Li Na, who won her first-ever Australian Open in 2014.

As a result, she took seventh place in the WTA rankings. Zheng’s stay in Paris gave her country its first individual Olympic gold in singles tennis, a game-changer in terms of confidence.

The 22-year-old from China’s Hubei province defended her victory in Palermo 2023 and also reached the final in Wuhan to set up a rematch against Sabalenka. Zheng has twelve wins in fifteen matches at the last three tournaments – US Open, China Open and Wuhan Open.

Now the latest tennis sensation from China will make her first appearance at the season-ending WTA Finals.

Barbora Krejcikova

Krejcikova is sidelined through injury and illness for the 2024 season. Following her Australian Open campaign, she went through a surprising phase, winning only two of her eleven matches. At Wimbledon she won her second major singles title.

Barbora Krejcikova on the grass courts of the All England Club won her first Grand Slam title since 2021, when the Czech won the French Open.

Krejcikova, currently ranked 13th, took advantage of the rule, which was applied for the first time. She qualifies by winning the Major and finishing in the top 20. She most recently played at the 2021 WTA Finals in Guadalajara, Mexico, finishing her first appearance 0–3 in the group stage.

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