The climax to the 2024 WTA Tour season arrives in November in the shape of the WTA Finals in Riyadh, live on Sky Sports Tennis.
Between November 2 and 9 the top eight women’s players in the world will face off in Saudi Arabia, looking to end their seasons on a high.
Read below for all you need to know…
What is the format of the WTA Finals?
The singles and doubles competition at the WTA Finals is played in a round-robin format. Players and teams are drawn into two separate groups and the top two finishers from each group advance to the semi-finals.
The top finisher from each group will face the runner-up from the other. The semi-finals and final are then played in a standard knockout format.
As with the ATP Finals in Turin, the WTA Finals hosts the top eight players from this calendar year.
Which players are qualified?
Poland’s Iga Swiatek (8,285 points) and Belarus’ Aryna Sabalenka (9,091) were the first two players in turn to qualify for the WTA Finals, with the latter now topping the standings after her win at the Wuhan Open.
The next four players in the list – Coco Gauff, Jasmine Paolini, Elena Rybakina and Jessica Pegula – are now also effectively qualified too.
Gauff (5,348) moved ahead of Italy’s Paolini (5,144) into third place after the American following up her China Open title with a run to the semi-finals a week later at the Shanghai Masters, where the latter lost in the quarters.
A little further back and Kazakhstan’s Rybakina (4,873) and the USA’s Pegula (4,705) own significant leads at the No 5 and No 6 spots on the Race to WTA Finals leaderboard, holding a 1,100-plus point cushion over anyone outside the top seven. That will be sufficient for them to qualify too.
But China’s Qinwen Zheng (4,050) has been on the move in recent weeks and has now risen into the qualifying positions in seventh after a fine fortnight on home soil in Beijing and Shanghai, where she reached the semi-finals and final respectively. The USA’s Emma Navarro (3,568) has dropped down to eighth as a result and is now in danger of not qualifying due to a new-for-2024 rule (more on which below).
Navarro has a near-400-point cushion over ninth-placed compatriot Danielle Collins (3,176), with Russian Daria Kasatkina (2,928) a further 200 points adrift.
For the Czech Republic’s Barbora Krejcikova – currently ranked at No 12 – scenarios for qualification for the WTA Finals look slightly different. As a Grand Slam winner, the Wimbledon champion needs only to secure a top-20 leaderboard finish to punch her ticket to Riyadh.
This is the first year such a scenario is a qualification rule for the WTA, where the highest ranked Grand Slam champion ranked No 8-20 secures a spot, leaving Krejcikova with a great chance of making it to Saudi Arabia.
Who is the defending champion?
In 2023, Swiatek dominated Pegula 6-1 6-0 to win the season-ending WTA Finals in Cancun and regain her world No 1 ranking from Sabalenka.
The four-time Grand Slam winner broke Pegula five times and saved the only break point she faced en route to her first WTA Finals trophy in a match delayed a day due to rain.
The Pole went 5-0 at the WTA tour’s season-closing championship, winning all 10 sets she played and ceding a total of just 20 games.
Such form was the fewest by the tournament’s winner since 2003, when it returned to a round-robin format. The previous low in that time was the 34 games dropped by Justine Henin in 2007.
Where is it being hosted?
Saudi Arabia’s capital Riyadh will host the WTA Finals for the top eight singles players and top eight doubles teams for the 2024, 2025 and 2026 tournaments.
The women’s professional tennis tour announced the three-year deal will see prize money for this November’s tournament raised to $15.25m (£12m), a 70-per-cent increase from 2023.
Previous hosts were Cancun (2023), Fort Worth (2022), Guadalajara (2021), Shenzhen (2019), Singapore (2014-2018), Istanbul (2011-2013), Doha (2008-2010), Madrid (2006-2007), Los Angeles (2002-2005, 1974-1976), Munich (2001), New York (1979-2000, 1977), Oakland (1978), Boca Raton (1972-1973).
Which major events are left before it begins?
In terms of the major WTA Tour events that are left before the final WTA Finals qualifiers are confirmed, the final major event is then the WTA Masters 1000 Wuhan Open between October 7-October 13.
What’s coming up on Sky Sports Tennis in October?
- Almaty Open, Kazakhstan – ATP 250 (October 14-20)
- Stockholm Open, Sweden – ATP 250 (October 14-20)
- European Open, Antwerp – ATP 250 (October 14-20)
- Japan Open, Osaka – WTA 250 (October 14-20)
- Ningbo Open, China – WTA 500 (October 14-20)
- Erste Bank Open, Vienna – ATP 500 (October 21-27)
- Swiss Indoors, Basel – ATP 500 (October 21-27)
- Guangzhou Open, China – WTA 250 (October 21-27)
- Toray Pan Pacific Open Tennis, Tokyo – WTA 500 (October 21-27)
Sky Sports+ has officially launched and will be integrated into Sky TVstreaming service NOW and the Sky Sports appgiving Sky Sports customers access to over 50 per cent more live sport this year at no extra cost. Find out more here.
