The WTA Finals prides itself as the “crown jewel” of its season and a stacked edition of the eight-player year-end tournament offers no shortage of star quality. Aryna Sabalenka is already guaranteed to finish the season at No 1 in the world, and a dominant one at that after winning the US Open. But a year that saw three other grand slam champions ensures she will face intense competition in her bid to win the Finals for the first time, and take home the biggest prize money of the season at a maximum of $5,235,000 - $235,000 more than her cheque for winning the US Open.
Sabalenka has been drawn into a group with French Open champion Coco Gauff, Jessica Pegula and Jasmine Paolini. Wimbledon champion Iga Swiatek is the second seed and will play Amanda Anisimova, Elena Rybakina and Australian Open champion Madison Keys in the other round-robin, with the top two players from each group advancing to the semi-finals. As well as the four different grand slam champions, the competition for the final four places in the Finals went down to the wire. With a late surge from Rybakina, Paolini qualified with a minuscule six more points than Mirra Andreeva, a two-time WTA 1000 champion this season at Indian Wells and Dubai.
