Editor's note: This week, we looked at the road each of the eight singles players and eight doubles teams took to qualify for this year's GNP Seguros WTA Finals Cancun in Mexico.

Singles

Monday: No.1 Sabalenka | No.2 Swiatek

Tuesday: No.3 Gauff | No.4 Rybakina

Wednesday: No.5 Pegula | No.6 Jabeur

Thursday: No. 7 Vondrousova | No.8 Sakkari 

Doubles

Monday: No.1 Gauff and Pegula | No.2 Hunter and Mertens

Tuesday: No.3 Aoyama and Shibahara | No.4 Krejcikova and Siniakova

Wednesday: No.5 Krawczyk and Schuurs | No.6 Siegemund and Zvonareva

Thursday: No.7 Dabrowski and Routliffe | No.8 Melichar-Martinez and Perez

Season at a glance

The band got back together again and almost immediately went one better than they had before.

Between August 2019 and January 2022, Shuko Aoyama and Ena Shibahara won eight titles together and reached two Grand Slam semifinals and the last four of the WTA Finals. But the Tokyo Olympic Games had been the Japanese duo's target, but that had ended in a disappointing first-round loss. Five months later, they parted ways for the bulk of the 2022 season.

The time apart didn't go so well. Aoyama and Shibahara reached only one final each with different partners, and neither won a title. So they reunited at the start of 2023, and three tournaments in, they achieved something they hadn't in their original partnership -- a Grand Slam final at the Australian Open, sealed with a victory against Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula.

Inconsistency plagued the remainder of the pair's season, but when they hit form they proved themselves a formidable team. This was ably demonstrated in their Montreal title run, which featured four victorious match tiebreaks in five matches.

By the numbers

2023 win-loss record as a team: 25-20
Titles won as a team: 's-Hertogenbosch (250), Montreal (1000)
Grand Slam record: Australian Open F (l. Krejcikova/Siniakova), Roland Garros R2 (l. Bondar/Minnen), Wimbledon R1 (l. Kalashnikova/Shymanovich), US Open R1 (l. Montgomery/Ngounoue)
Aoyama ranking: 10
Shibahara ranking: 13
Previous WTA Finals appearances: 2021 (SF)