WTA Finals 2024: Meet the eight contenders and their path to qualification

Aryna Sabalenka leads a star-studded field to Riyadh.

Riyadh takes over the mantle of host city for the year-ending WTA Finals 2024 from Cancun, Mexico. The Saudi capital will host eight elite women from the WTA Tour as they will battle it out to win the singles trophy at the week-long event. The doubles draw hosts eight teams, with 16 players competing for the trophy.

It would be only the second time a Middle Eastern country has hosted the prestigious tournament after Doha (2008-2010). Saudi Arabia’s first foray into women’s tennis was by acquiring the rights to the WTA Finals.

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, will host the next three editions of the WTA Finals, according to an agreement inked earlier this year between the WTA and the Saudi Tennis Federation.

The WTA Finals 2024 will take place between November 2nd and 9th, featuring the top eight players in the singles event. The prize money on offer courtesy of the Saudi Tennis Federation is a record $15.25 million, with further increases in 2025 and 2026. The prize pool at the 2023 edition of the WTA Finals held in Cancun was $9 million.

Iga Swiatek won the event last season, defeating Jessica Pegula 6-1, 6-0 in the final. The win over the American came in just 59 minutes. It was a flawless performance by Swiatek, who picked up the trophy without dropping a set at the week-long event.

Also Read: Coco Gauff, Jasmine Paolini, Elena Ryabkina, Jessica Pegula qualify for WTA Finals 2024

Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka were the first among the eight to qualify for the tournament. They were followed by Coco Gauff, Elena Rybakina, Jasmine Paolini, and Jessica Pegula. Qinwen Zheng and Barbora Krejcikoca were the last to qualify and completed the lineup.

Meet the top eight of the WTA Tour who have booked tickets for the year-ending and inaugural WTA Finals to be played in Riyadh for the first time. The event has two World No. 1s, the current one (Sabalenka) and one former (Swiatek), leading the field even as the race for year-ending No. #1 heats up.

Aryna Sabalenka

After starting the year strongly by defending the Australian Open title she won in 2023, Aryna Sabalenka had a mid-season hiccup during the European swing. However, the World No. #1, brushed off two straight losses in the WTA 1000 finals mid-season at Madrid and Rome and claimed victory in the semi-finals at Cincinnati over the World No. #2 Swiatek.

The Belarusian went on a winning spree—claiming the Cincinnati Open, following it up with a title run in New York for the first time and the Wuhan Open title for a third straight time.

Sabalenka has three WTA Finals appearances under her belt and her best result was finishing as runner-up in 2022. She now leads the singles race and is poised to end the year as No. #1 after missing out last year to Swiatek.

Also Read: How many titles has Aryna Sabalenka won in 2024?

Iga Swiatek

Iga Swiatek stormed ahead of the rest of the field in the first phase of the season, winning four WTA 1000 titles besides her fourth Roland Garros trophy. The WTA 1000-level titles came at Doha, Indian Wells, Madrid, and Rome. The titles and Madrid, Rome and Roland Garros came in quick succession for the Pole.

After winning five titles in the first six months this year, Swiatek’s momentum dropped. Despite being a favourite to clinch the gold at the Paris Olympics, she came away with a bronze. She split with coach Tomasz Wiktorowski after three seasons, choosing to sit out the Asian swing following the unexpected development.

Swiatek has made three WTA Finals appearances and was the winner in 2023 but faces an uphill battle this year to finish her year as No. #1. Swiatek and new coach Wim Fissette’s first test will be the upcoming WTA Finals due to begin.

Coco Gauff

For Coco Gauff, the 2024 season has been a mixed bag. The youngest American woman since Serena Williams to win the US Open has seen a reversal of fortunes in 2024. After winning four titles in 2023, the 20-year-old has had to be content with just two titles in the ongoing season at Beijing and Auckland.

Between the two wins, Gauff put together a series of semi-final appearances (5) but failed to convert any of them into a title-round appearance. She also reached the last four at the Wuhan Open but fell to Sabalenka despite taking a one-set lead.

Also Read: Coco Gauff surpasses Novak Djokovic as most marketable tennis player in 2024

Coco Gauff, the World No. #3 has two appearances at the WTA Finals, posting her best result with a 2023 trip to the semi-finals. Gauff is making her third trip to the year-end championships and is the youngest player to qualify. The American has staged a nascent recovery by winning 12 of her last 14 matches and the China Open title for the first time.

Jasmine Paolini

Jasmine Paolini, a 28-year-old Italian, rose from a year-end ranking of No. #30 to the No. #6 position she currently occupies. A title run at the Dubai Tennis Championships, a WTA 1000 event in February, for the biggest triumph of her career.

This year, Paolini advanced to the finals at Roland Garros and Wimbledon, a massive accomplishment considering adapting to different surfaces. Before 2024, she had yet to make it past the fourth round at a Grand Slam.

The clutch of points she earned from her Dubai breakthrough and making the finals at back-to-back slams has landed her a first WTA Finals spot in the singles draw. Jasmine Paolini will be doing double duty after qualifying for the doubles draw, too, with fellow Italian Sara Errani. Paolini and Errani went for gold in the women’s doubles event at the Paris Olympics, giving Italy the first Olympic tennis gold in history.

Elena Rybakina

It has not been smooth sailing for Rybakina, who has struggled in 2024 with illness and injury playing havoc with her. Despite the setbacks, she bagged three titles in the season’s first four months (Abu Dhabi, Brisbane and Stuttgart). At Stuttgart, she denied Swiatek a chance to make it three in a row, knocking out the Pole in the semis to go up 4-2 in their head-to-head.

Also Read: Elena Rybakina hires Goran Ivanisevic as coach ahead of WTA Finals 2024

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

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

Jessica Pegula

Jessica Pegula went on a late-summer surge to make it to the final eight in the WTA Finals. The American won the National Bank Open in Toronto and followed it up by making the finals in Cincinnati and the US Open, losing to Sabalenka both times. The World No. 4 also won the ecotrans Ladies Open in Berlin, beating Anna Kalinskaya in their first meeting since 2019 to nudge ahead 2-0 in their career meetings.

Between Montreal and New York, Pegula stitched together 15 wins in 17 matches to punch a third straight ticket to the WTA Finals. Her best result is reaching the 2023 WTA Finals, where she fell to Swiatek.

Qinwen Zheng

Qinwen Zheng caught the world’s attention and went from being a relative unknown to becoming the first Chinese woman in a decade to make the finals at a Grand Slam at the 2024 Australian Open in January. Zheng emulated compatriot Li Na, who won the Australian Open in a historic first in 2014. 

The result propelled her to World No. #7 in the WTA rankings. Zheng’s stay in Paris yielded her country’s first individual Olympic tennis singles gold, which in terms of confidence, was a game changer.

The 22-year-old hailing from China’s Hubei Province defended her Palermo win from 2023, besides making the final in Wuhan to set up a rematch against Sabalenka. Zheng picked up twelve wins from fifteen matches in the past three events – the US Open, China Open and Wuhan Open.

A maiden appearance in the season-ending WTA Finals now awaits the latest tennis sensation to come out of China.

Barbora Krejcikova

Krejcikova was sidelined by injury and illness during the 2024 season. After her Australian Open campaign, she went through an unexpected phase, winning only two of eleven matches. She put it together at Wimbledon for her second major singles title.

Barbora Krejcikova took out four top 15 players—Danielle Collins, Jelena Ostapenko, Elena Rybakina and Jasmine Paolini on the grass courts at the All England Club to collect her first Grand Slam title since 2021 when the Czech won the French Open.

Krejcikova, currently at No. #13 in the rankings, has benefitted from a rule invoked for the first time. She qualifies by way of winning a major and making it to the top 20. She last played at the WTA Finals in 2021 in Guadalajara, Mexico, finishing her maiden appearance with a 0-3 result in the group stage.

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