Prime-ranked Aryna Sabalenka will attempt to maintain off Poland’s second-placed Iga Swiatek for the year-end world primary spot when the WTA Finals start Sunday in Cancun, Mexico.
The $9 million season-ending out of doors hardcourt showdown of eight high gamers options round-robin group matches to determine semifinal pairings forward of the November 5 championship match.
Sabalenka, the reigning Australian Open champion, was the runner-up in final month’s US Open and reached the semifinals at Wimbledon and the French Open.
The 25-year-old from Belarus additionally gained WTA titles this 12 months at Madrid and Adelaide and enters the WTA Finals with a 630-point lead over 22-year-old reigning French Open champion Swiatek.
4-time Grand Slam winner Swiatek, the 2022 year-end world primary, additionally took 2023 titles at Stuttgart, Qatar, Poland and earlier this month at Beijing.
Sabalenka can clinch the year-end high spot by reaching the ultimate with a 2-1 group stage report it doesn’t matter what Swiatek does.
“It’s not nearly turning into world primary,” Sabalenka stated final month in China.
“I believe it’s about ending the 12 months as world primary and staying there so long as you may.”
If Swiatek loses a round-robin match, Sabalenka can safe the year-end primary by going unbeaten in group play or reaching the ultimate.
Ought to Swiatek drop two matches within the group stage, a 2-1 round-robin report can be sufficient to make Sabalenka the year-end rankings chief.
Swiatek, this 12 months’s WTA match wins chief with 63, should make the ultimate to have an opportunity on the year-end primary offered Sabalenka performs all her group matches.
If Sabalenka wins even one group-stage match, Swiatek would wish to win the title for an opportunity on the throne.
Others within the discipline embody 19-year-old US Open champion Coco Gauff, fellow American Jessica Pegula, Greece’s Maria Sakkari, Ons Jabeur of Tunisia, Kazakhstan’s Elena Rybakina and Czech Marketa Vondrousova, the reigning Wimbledon champion.
Sabalenka grew to become world primary after her run to the US Open ultimate in September, ending Swiatek’s 75-week reign atop the rankings after reaching primary for the primary time in April 2022.
In final 12 months’s WTA Finals, Sabalenka snapped a four-match shedding streak to Swiatek with a semifinal triumph however dropped the ultimate to France’s Caroline Garcia.
In two conferences this 12 months, each within the WTA clay finals, Swiatek gained at Stuttgart and Sabalenka gained at Madrid.