Eight of the world’s best women’s singles tennis players will gather in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from November 2 to 8 to compete for the WTA Finals title. The culmination of a long tennis season, this is a gathering of the best in 2024 women’s singles tennis.
Aryna Sabalenka, winner of two Grand Slams in 2024 (Australian and US Open), is the World No. 1 player and the best hardcourt player in the world. She is considered the favorite to win the event. Defending champion Iga Swiatek will be on her heels. Swiatek comes to the event with a new coach (Wim Fissette: Naomi Osaka’s former coach) after an extensive layoff that caused her to lose her World No. 1 ranking.
Who are the 8 players?
In addition to Sabalenka and Swiatek, Coco Gauff, Jasmine Paolini, Elena Rybakina, Jessica Pegula, the newly crowned Japan Open champion Qinwen Zheng, and Barbora Krejcikova will compete for the year-end title.
All of these players are used to competing on a big stage. Five of the eight players are Grand Slam champions (Sabalenka, Swiatek, Gauff, Rybakina, Krejcikova). The other three are Grand Slam finalists (Paolini, Pegula, Zheng).
Two of the eight are the 2024 Paris Olympic medalists. Qinwen Zheng won gold, and Iga Swiatek won the bronze.
The players rank first through seventh, and twelfth in the world. Emma Navarro, the eighth-ranked player did not qualify because of the rule that states that all of the current year’s Grand Slam champions earn entry into the competition. Krejcikova, the 2024 Wimbledon Champion, is ranked 12th.
Four of the players have made recent coaching changes
One interesting fact about this year’s top eight is that half have made coaching changes within the last 12 months. They are Coco Gauff, Jessica Pegula, Elena Rybakina, and Iga Swiatek. Pegula’s coaching change happened in the spring. Gauff, Rybakina, and Swiatek changed coaches this fall. Rybakina has not officially named her coach after parting ways with Stefano Vukov.
This is the 53rd year of the WTA Finals
1972 was the inaugural year held on the clay in Boca Raton, Florida. The tournament stayed in Boca and on the clay through 1973 and has since been on carpet or hardcourt surfaces ever since.
Iga Swiatek is the only player of the eight to win the event. Aryna Sabalenka and Jessica Pegula were finalists in 2022 and 2023, respectively.
The event opens with a round-robin format. Two groups of four are randomly drawn. The top two players with the best win-loss record in their group advance to the semifinals with the winners competing in the finals.
The WTA Finals will be televised on the Tennis Channel.
