The 2024 WTA season will be completed by the 2024 WTA Finals, and the entry list has been completed for the year-end tournament.
The 2024 WTA Finals will be held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from November 2nd to 9th. It was a move that sparked a lot of controversy, but despite some questioning the decision, the tournament will go underway, and players are looking forward to competing in Saudi Arabia.
At the end of the day, it's a year-end championship, rewarding the eight best players in a given year with a chance to earn some more points and prize money for their efforts during the season.
It's almost becoming a tradition that Iga Swiatek is the first player to qualify for the WTA Finals early in the season, and the same also happened this year, as the Polish player secured her qualification already in June.
She earned enough points to compete at the year-end championship, and for her, the remainder of the season isn't a fight for points to make it to the WTA Finals but to end the year as the World No. 1.
She has already played at the WTA Finals three times. Her first participation, in 2021, ended in the group stage when she won only one match against Paula Badosa. The following year saw her lose in the semi-finals to Aryna Sabalenka, but last year, she outplayed everyone, winning the trophy in Cancun.
A player that Swiatek is in that fight for that World No. 1 spot with is Aryna Sabalenka, who joined Swiatek in qualifying for the WTA Finals in September, thanks to her sensational performances at the US Open.
The Belarusian is the only player who has won two majors in 2024, and her participation never seemed in doubt, especially after she was the first Grand Slam champion of the season, winning the Australian Open.
Despite already having three majors in her collection, Sabalenka has yet to win the WTA Finals. In her first participation in 2021, the Belarusian ended already in the group stage, winning a match against Swiatek but losing to Maria Sakkari and Badosa.
The following year, she reached the final, once again beating Swiatek, this time in the semi-finals, but Caroline Garcia proved to be too strong in the final of the 2022 WTA Finals.
In 2023, the Polish player got her revenge when she bested Sabalenka in the tournament's semi-finals. Although the Belarusian has yet to win the trophy at the WTA Finals, she has previously triumphed at a similar competition when she won the 2019 WTA Elite Trophy, a competition for the highest-ranked players who didn't make it to the WTA Finals.
Barbora Krejcikova won the 2024 Wimbledon Championships, and she was eligible for a spot at the WTA Finals even if she didn't finish the year in the Top 8 of the WTA Race.
Thanks to a special rule for the WTA Finals, the Czech player, as a Grand Slam champion in 2024, had to end the year ranked only between 8th and 20th to make it to the WTA Finals, and she did that, and booked her spot.
"The top seven (7) players on the Race to the Finals Leaderboard; Then, the highest-ranked current-year Grand Slam winner who is 8-20 on the Race to the Finals Leaderboard and who is not already qualified."
Outside of her win at Wimbledon, Krejcikova didn't enjoy a lot of success during the 2024 season, and that's why this rule came into play, meaning only seven spots were available to players who wanted to qualify based on their points earned this year.
Thanks to her win at the China Open, Coco Gauff also secured her spot at the 2024 WTA Finals, and during the same week, Elena Rybakina, Jasmine Paolini, and Jessica Pegula joined her in qualifying for the year-end championship.
There was only one spot left after that, with Qinwen Zheng and Emma Navarro as the top two favorites for it. The American playered couldn't compete due to injuries, meaning that Zheng sealed the last qualifying spot for the 2024 WTA Finals in Riyadh.
| Qualified | Player |
|---|---|
| 1. | Iga Swiatek |
| 2. | Aryna Sabalenka |
| 3. | Coco Gauff |
| 4. | Elena Rybakina |
| 5. | Jasmine Paolini |
| 6. | Jessica Pegula |
| 7. | Qinwen Zheng |
| 8. | Barbora Krejcikova |