Aryna Sabalenka leads a star-studded field in Riyadh.

Riyadh takes over the mantle of host city for the end of the year WTA Finals 2024 of Cancun, Mexico. The Saudi Arabian capital will host eight elite women from the WTA Tour as they 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 reached earlier this year between the WTA and the Saudi Tennis Federation.

The 2024 WTA Finals will take place between November 2 and 9, with the top eight players in the singles event. The prize money offered by 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 victory over the American came in just 59 minutes. It was a flawless performance from Swiatek who took the trophy without dropping a set at the week-long event.

Read also: Coco Gauff, Jasmine Paolini, Elena Ryabkina, Jessica Pegula qualify for the 2024 WTA finals

Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka were the first of the eight qualified 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 complete the lineup.

Meet the WTA Tour’s top eight who have booked their tickets to the year-end and inaugural WTA Finals, which will be played in Riyadh for the first time. The event has two world Nos. one current (Sabalenka) and one former (Swiatek) leading the rankings, even as the race for year-end No. 1 heats up.

Aryna Sabalenka

After starting the year strongly by defending the Australian Open title he won in 2023, Aryna Sabalenka had a mid-season hiccup during the European swing. However, the world No. 1 shook off two back-to-back defeats in mid-season WTA 1000 finals in Madrid and Rome and claimed semifinal victory in Cincinnati over world No. 2 Swiatek.

The Belarusian went on a winning streak – claiming the Cincinnati Open, followed by a first round title in New York and the Wuhan Open title for the third time in a row.

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

Read also: How many titles did Aryna Sabalenka win in 2024?

Iga Swiatek

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

After winning five titles in the first six months of this year, Swiatek’s momentum has waned. Despite being the favorite to win gold at the Paris Olympics, she came away with a bronze. Parted ways with coach Tomasz Wiktorowski after three seasonschoosing to stay out of the Asian cradle 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 the year at No. 1. Swiatek and new coach Wim Fissette’s first test will be the next WTA Finals which is about to start.

Coco Gauff

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

Between the two wins, Gauff put together a string of semifinal appearances (5), but was unable 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.

Read also: Coco Gauff has surpassed Novak Djokovic as the top-selling tennis player in 2024

World No. 3 Coco Gauff has two WTA Finals appearances, posting her best result with a 2023 trip to the semifinals. Gauff is making her third trip to the year-end championships and is the youngest player to qualify. The American staged an early 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 30th place at the end of the year to her current 6th place. A title 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 achievement considering his adaptation to different surfaces. Before 2024, she had yet to get past the fourth round at a Grand Slam.

The flurry of points she earned from her breakthrough in Dubai and back-to-back slam finals earned her a first place in the WTA singles finals. Jasmine Paolini will do double duty after qualifying in the doubles draw, also alongside Italy’s Sara Errani. Paolini and Errani took gold in the women’s doubles event at the Paris Olympics, giving Italy its first ever Olympic tennis gold.

Elena Rybakina

For Rybakina, who battled 2024 with illness and injury, it was not smooth sailing with 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 make it three in a row, knocking out the Pole in the semi-finals to go 4-2 up on them.

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

The Kazakh was also a finalist in Doha and Miami, losing to Swiatek and Danielle Collins respectively. Rybakina got sweet revenge on 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, who made her WTA Finals debut in 2023, finished 1-2 in the group stage.

Jessica Pegula

Jessica Pegula she made a late summer surge to reach the last eight at the WTA Finals. The American won the National Bank Open in Toronto and went on to reach the finals in Cincinnati and the US Open, losing both times to Sabalenka. The world No. 4 also won the Ecotrans Ladies Open in Berlin, defeating Anna Kalinskaya in their first meeting of 2019 to go 2-0 up in career meetings.

Between Montreal and New York, Pegula strung 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 reach a Grand Slam final 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 the 7th place in the world in the WTA ranking. Zheng’s stay in Paris brought her country’s first Olympic tennis singles gold, which in terms of confidence, was a game-changer.

The 22-year-old, from China’s Hubei province, defended her victory in Palermo from 2023, in addition to reaching the final in Wuhan to set up a rematch against Sabalenka. Zheng has won twelve out of fifteen matches in the last three events – US Open, China Open and Wuhan Open.

A maiden appearance in the season-ending WTA Finals now awaits the latest tennis sensation to hail from China.

Barbora Krejcikova

Krejcikova was sidelined by injury and illness in the 2024 season. After her Australian Open campaign, she went through an unexpected phase, winning just 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 win her first Grand Slam title since 2021, when the Czech won the French Open.

Krejcikova, currently ranked 13th, benefited from a rule invoked in the premiere. She qualifies by winning a major and reaching the top 20. She last played at the WTA Finals in 2021 in Guadalajara, Mexico, finishing her first appearance with a 0-3 record in the group stage.

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