We asked AI to predict the WTA Finals 2024 champion: Here’s what it had to say ft. Iga Swiatek, Aryna Sabalenka

The WTA Finals 2024 has been an excellent showcase of players’ abilities thus far. Almost halfway through the tournament, fans are picking their brains with regards to who will be crowned as the victor this year. We asked Google’s Gemini AI to take a crack at the same, and it had Iga Swiatek, Aryna Sabalenka, Coco Gauff, and Elena Rybakina as the favorites.

Although it said that it is a tad bit early to zero in on a single player, it had Sabalenka as the frontrunner, followed by Swiatek. The two have been the tour’s two best players for the past couple of years, so this prediction does align with the ground reality.
Sabalenka is also the only one to have qualified for the semifinals as of now. She won both of her group-stage matches to sail into the last four for the third straight year. Swiatek won her first match of the round robin phase against Barbora Krejcikova, and will take on Gauff on Tuesday (November 5) in her second match.

Rybakina, meanwhile, has already been eliminated from contention after she lost both of her group-stage matches. The AI summary shouldn’t have included her as one of the potential candidates. She will face Sabalenka in their final match of the group stage on Wednesday (November 6). The Belarusian, meanwhile, won’t get complacent despite booking her spot in the last four.

While there has been a lot of focus on Aryna Sabalenka’s fight with Iga Swiatek for the year-end No. 1 ranking, there’s another feat that the Belarusian could achieve with her victory at the WTA Finals as well. She could become the first player since Ashleigh Barty to win the tournament as the top-ranked player, when she did the same in 2019.

Prior to Barty, Serena Williams achieved the same feat with her title-winning runs at the year-end championships in 2013 and 2014. With only two players to have accomplished this in the past decade, Sabalenka has a chance to join this exclusive club.
Having clinched her berth in the semifinals, Sabalenka will now aim to reach her second final at the year-end championships. She previously finished as the runner-up to Caroline Garcia in 2022. A triumph at the WTA Finals would also complete her collection of trophies at the biggest hardcourt tournaments, having already won the Australian Open and the US Open.