RIYADH: The WTA Finals return this week to Riyadh, where the eight top-ranked female tennis players on the tour will do battle one last time this season.
This is the second straight year the Saudi capital has hosted the event, which runs from Nov. 1 to 8 at King Saud University Indoor Arena. The players in the singles event are split into two groups of four who will face each other in a round-robin stage, with the top two in each group advancing to the semi-finals on Friday.
Aryna Sabalenka is the top seed and headlines Group Steffi Graf, alongside defending champion Coco Gauff, Jessica Pegula, and Jasmine Paolini. No. 2 seed Iga Swiatek is joined in Group Serena Williams by Amanda Anisimova, Elena Rybakina and Madison Keys.
Seven of the eight players spoke to the press on Friday; Paolini opted to skip her media duties, citing illness. This is the second consecutive season in which the Italian has qualified for both the singles and doubles at the event.
Here are the main talking points ahead of this year’s season finale.
Sabalenka chasing a maiden Finals crown
The closest Sabalenka has come to winning the WTA Finals title in her previous four appearances was in 2022, when she finished runner-up to Caroline Garcia in Fort Worth, Texas.
This year, she arrives in Riyadh on the back of an impressive campaign during which she reached eight finals and won four of them, including a fourth Grand Slam trophy at the US Open.
She spent the past two weeks practicing in Dubai in preparation for the season-closer, and has spoken at length about the lessons she learned from her losses this year in the finals of the Australian Open and Roland-Garros, at the latter of which she succumbed to her emotions and frustration. Vindication came at the US Open, and she says she now adopts a calmer approach to big matches.
“When you just lose control completely, it’s not going to help you,” she said on Friday ahead of her opening match on Sunday against Paolini. “I think that was my main lesson: no matter what, stay in control.
“Having those finals, having that experience, definitely helped me to stay in control at the US Open. Every time I would remember those two matches, I was like, ‘OK, there is no chance I’m going to lose control over my emotions this time.’ That experience really helped me in that final at the US Open.”
Sabalenka secured the year-end No.1 ranking for a second-consecutive year and is hoping she can finally unlock the WTA Finals puzzle.
“I think before, I was thinking too much about the round-robin matches,” she said. “I would win a couple of matches, then it was really tricky for me to play full in the third one knowing I was most likely going to qualify for the semis. That was tricky.
“I think the goal is just to completely forget about the round-robin and just play like a tournament, like every match matters and you have to go and fight and not waste your energy of, like, thinking, counting, doing this math situation.”
Swiatek back on solid ground
It has also been a season of learning for Swiatek, who had to deal with the emotional aftermath of a positive drug test as a result of taking a contaminated sleeping aid. The Polish world No. 2 was cleared of wrongdoing and served a one-month suspension, but the ordeal took a toll on her and affected her mindset and results.
With the help of coach Wim Fissette, with whom she started to work toward the end of last season, Swiatek made significant improvements to her serve and to her game on faster surfaces, which finally paid off during the summer.
Playing on her least favorite surface, she captured a sixth Grand Slam at Wimbledon, and added more silverware to her trophy room on the hard courts of Cincinnati and Seoul.
“I had some challenges this year that really were kind of new and I needed to adjust to them a little bit more,” said the 24-year-old.
“Also I think it was the first year when I didn’t feel like I’m still young. That was also a different feeling. Overall, I think winning Wimbledon made this season already super special and amazing. I would just put it over anything else, I would say. It was a tricky season but at the end I can say a good one.”
Swiatek is making her fifth consecutive appearance at the WTA Finals and will begins her campaign on Saturday against Australian Open champion Keys.
Gauff eyes a repeat
No player has successfully defended a WTA Finals title since Serena Williams completed a “threepeat” in 2014.
Gauff hopes to change that this week. The reigning Roland-Garros champion beat the world’s top two, Sabalenka and Swiatek, en route to lifting the trophy in the Kingdom last year, and will face stiff competition again this year in her attempt to retain the crown.
The 21-year-old built some much-needed momentum by reaching the semi-finals in Beijing and winning the WTA 1000 tournament in Wuhan in the past few weeks, and can rely on her experience of playing well at Riyadh’s altitude 12 months ago.
Asked why she thinks there have been no repeat champions at the event for more than a decade, Gauff said: “I think, (a) it’s one of those tournaments you’re not guaranteed a spot in every year. Some people win and aren’t able to even qualify. And (b) It’s the top eight in the world; it’s very hard to win this tournament in general, let alone replicate it in back-to-back years.
“But yeah, I’m not thinking about that. I really just want to focus on my first match ahead and take it one match at a time. I think that’s what I did last year; going to try to keep that mindset.”
Americans form half the field
Of the eight players competing in the singles, four are American, the first time there has been this many since 2002. They are Anisimova, the only event debutante in the field, Gauff, Keys and Pegula.
“That’s crazy that half of us are Americans,” said Anisimova, who reached the Wimbledon and US Open finals this season.
“It’s super exciting for US tennis. I mean, we’ve done really well this year. I’m just really proud of myself and the other girls. Yeah, hopefully we can keep going. Definitely makes us represent our country well. I think we’re doing a great job.”
Rybakina ready for ‘one last push’
In a season in which she played without her coach, Stefano Vukov, as he served a suspension for breaking the WTA Code of Conduct, Rybakina punched her ticket to the WTA Finals at the last possible moment by winning the title in Ningbo and reaching the semi-finals in Tokyo in the last two weeks.
“Of course, it’s a great result because when I came to Asia, I knew, of course, there is still a lot of players who can qualify,” said Rybakina, who will face Anisimova in her opener on Saturday.
“Then with just the last few tournaments left, of course I knew that I needed to win a lot of matches in a row. You never know what’s going to happen each day. I tried to do my best. I played against tough opponents, ones I lost to before. I’m pretty glad that the last few weeks went successful for me. Happy to be here. Ready to make last push this week.”
The former Wimbledon champion has changed her management set-up, forming her own company to represent her, and she said she feels more in control of her career.
“It’s not always easy to find good people to set up the team,” she said. “I had experiences with agencies. Since I’ve been on the tour for quite a while, I understand what I need for myself in the future. This is what I’m trying to do.”
