Top-ranked Aryna Sabalenka will try to hold off Poland’s second-placed Iga Swiatek for the year-end world No. 1 spot when the WTA Finals begin at Cancun, Mexico, on Sunday.
The US$9 million (S$12.3 million) season-ending outdoor hard-court showdown of eight top players features round-robin group matches to decide semi-final pairings ahead of next Sunday’s final.
Sabalenka leads the Bacalar group, which includes 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina, world No. 5 Jessica Pegula and Greece’s Maria Sakkari.
Swiatek heads the Chetumal group, also made up of teenage US Open champion Coco Gauff, Ons Jabeur of Tunisia and reigning Wimbledon champion Marketa Vondrousova.
The top two finishers from each group advance to the semi-finals. The top finisher from each group will face the runner-up from the other. The semi-finals and final are played in a standard knockout format.
Sabalenka started the year with a bang, winning the Australian Open before reaching the semi-finals at the French Open and Wimbledon and ending the Grand Slam circuit as the runner-up in September’s US Open.
The 25-year-old from Belarus also won WTA titles in 2023 at Madrid and Adelaide, and enters the WTA Finals with a 630-point lead over 22-year-old reigning French Open champion Swiatek.
Four-time Grand Slam winner Swiatek, the 2022 year-end world No. 1, also took 2023 titles at Stuttgart, Qatar, Poland and earlier in October at Beijing.
Sabalenka can clinch the year-end top spot by reaching the final with a 2-1 group-stage record no matter what Swiatek does.
“It’s not just about becoming world No. 1. I think it’s about finishing the year as world No. 1 and staying there as long as you can,” she said in September in China.
If Swiatek loses a round-robin match, Sabalenka can secure the year-end No. 1 by going unbeaten in group play or reaching the final.
Should Swiatek drop two matches in the group stage, a 2-1 round-robin record would be enough to make Sabalenka the year-end rankings leader.
Swiatek, this year’s WTA match wins leader with 63, must make the final to have a chance at the year-end No. 1 provided Sabalenka plays all her group matches.
If Sabalenka wins even one group-stage match, Swiatek would need to win the title for a chance at the throne.
“You’re not going to get any easy matches in WTA Finals. Obviously, I faced Coco and Marketa in Beijing and US Open, so the only player I didn’t play recently is Ons. I just have to focus on myself and get used to the conditions here and everything should be fine,” Swiatek said.
Sabalenka became world No. 1 after her run to the US Open final in September, ending Swiatek’s 75-week reign atop the rankings after reaching the summit for the first time in April 2022.
In the 2022 WTA Finals, Sabalenka snapped a four-match losing streak to Swiatek with a semi-final triumph, but dropped the final to France’s Caroline Garcia. In two meetings this year, both in WTA clay finals, Swiatek won at Stuttgart and Sabalenka won at Madrid. AFP
