previews

WTA Finals draw: Sabalenka, Rybakina land in same group; Swiatek eyes Gauff

2m read 5mo ago
GettyImages-2167291059
Getty Images

Defending champion Iga Swiatek

View Profile was on hand for the draw ceremony at the WTA Finals Riyadh presented by PIF to see how this year's groups shook out for the season-ending championships.

For the second straight year, the year-end No.1 ranking will come down to the final event of the season, as World No.1 Aryna Sabalenka

View Profile looks to hold off No.2 Swiatek down the final stretch. 

Road to the WTA Finals: Sabalenka | Swiatek | Gauff | Paolini | Rybakina | Pegula | Zheng | Krejcikova

Meet the top doubles teams heading to Riyadh

Here's how the singles and doubles draws shook out:

Singles Draw

Purple Group
[1] Aryna Sabalenka

View Profile
[4] Jasmine Paolini
View Profile

[5] Elena Rybakina
View Profile

[7] Zheng Qinwen

Orange Group
[2] Iga Swiatek

View Profile
[3] Coco Gauff
View Profile

[6] Jessica Pegula
View Profile

[8] Barbora Krejcikova
View Profile

Doubles Draw

Green Group
[1] Lyudmyla Kichenok & Jelena Ostapenko

View Profile
[3] Hsieh Su-Wei & Elise Mertens
View Profile

[6] Nicole Melichar-Martinez & Ellen Perez
[8] Katerina Siniakova
View Profile
&
Taylor Townsend
View Profile

White Group
[2] Gabriela Dabrowski & Erin Routliffe
[4] Sara Errani

View Profile & Jasmine Paolini
View Profile

[5] Caroline Dolehide
View Profile
&
Desirae Krawczyk
[7] Chan Hao-Ching & Veronika Kudermetova
View Profile

How the draw is made: The top two seeds are placed atop the opposite groups. Players/teams are then randomly drawn from each subsequent pair of seeds so that Seeds 3 and 4, Seeds 5 and 6, and Seeds 7 and 8 are in opposite groups. 

Iga Swiatek WTA Finals 2024

WTA/Jimmie48

Tournament format: Round-robin play begins on Saturday, Nov. 2 at 3:30 p.m. on the indoor hard courts at the King Saud University Sports Arena. The top two finishers out of each group will advance to the semifinals on Friday, Nov. 8, with the winners advancing to the final on Saturday, Nov.9.

Top-seeded Sabalenka and the Purple Group will get underway on Saturday, with the Orange Group set to begin on Sunday. 

Order of Play: Day 1

[3] Hsieh/Mertens vs. [6] Melichar-Martinez/Perez
[1] Sabalenka vs. [7] Zheng
[4] Paolini vs. [5] Rybakina
[1] Kichenok/Ostapenko vs. [8] Siniakova/Townsend

Order of Play: Day 2

[2] Dabrowski/Routliffe vs. [7] Chan/Kudermetova
[2] Swiatek vs. [8] Krejcikova
[3] Gauff vs. [6] Pegula
[4] Errrani/Paolini vs. [5] Dolehide/Krawczyk

In the 53rd staging of the Hologic WTA Tour's crown-jewel event, this season's eight best singles players and doubles teams will battle it out for a record-setting total prize money purse of $15,250,000, with an undefeated singles champion set to take home over $5 million.