Florida’s St. Petersburg — Along with the doubles pair of Caroline Dolehide and Desirae Krawczyk, the WTA announced on Monday that four singles players—Coco Gauff, Elena Rybakina, Jasmine Paolini, and Jessica Pegula—have qualified for the WTA Finals in Riyadh.
With these players in the singles draw, there are just two qualifying positions left on the PIF Race to the WTA Finals, alongside PIF WTA World No. 1 Iga Swiatek and Australian and US Open champion Aryna Sabalenka.
There are still two spots available in the doubles division, where the following players have already confirmed their positions: Sara Errani & Jasmine Paolini, Gabriela Dabrowski & Erin Routliffe, Katerina Siniakova & Taylor Townsend, Jelena Ostapenko & Lyudmyla Kichenok, Hsieh Su-Wei & Elise Mertens.
The rising star from America, Coco Gauff, is celebrating qualifying for the WTA Finals for the third time in a row. Her finest performance to date was reaching the semifinals last year. The 20-year-old has also qualified for the event twice, in 2022 and 2023, alongside fellow countrywoman Jessica Pegula.
Gauff won two championships this season, the WTA 1000 China Open in Beijing and the WTA 250 ASB Classic in Auckland, where she successfully defended her title, earning her a place in Riyadh. On all three surfaces, she advanced to six additional semifinals, including the Australian Open and significant WTA competitions at Indian Wells, Rome, Wuhan, and Berlin. June saw a career-high PIF WTA Ranking of No. 2 due to this achievement.
Last year, Elena Rybakina became the first singles qualifier from Kazakhstan and is now headed to her second WTA Finals. She had another amazing season, making it to five finals, contending in two WTA 1000 finals (Doha and Miami), and won three WTA 500 championships (Brisbane, Abu Dhabi, and Stuttgart). In the WTA Finals doubles bracket, Rybakina joins Anna Danilina and Yaroslava Shvedova, who previously represented Kazakhstan.
Due to her breakthrough season, Jasmine Paolini qualified for the WTA Finals in both the singles and doubles categories. Since Flavia Pennetta in 2015, she is the first Italian to qualify for the singles event. Paolini competed in her first Grand Slam finals at Roland Garros and Wimbledon, winning the WTA 1000 Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships. She advanced to three major finals. After her success in Paris, she broke into the Top 10 and finished the season with nearly 35 victories.
After an incredible season that saw her win the WTA 500 ecotrans Ladies Open in Berlin, defend her WTA 1000 title in Toronto, and advance to her maiden Grand Slam final at the US Open, Jessica Pegula will be making her third straight participation in the WTA Finals.
For her fourth appearance at the WTA Finals, Desirae Krawczyk is paired with Caroline Dolehide. This year, the American team advanced to two WTA 1000 finals, where they won in Toronto and placed second in Doha. They also made two appearances in Grand Slam semifinals, at Wimbledon and Roland Garros. Both players achieved career-high rankings as a result of their victory, and they hope to become the first American squad to win the WTA Finals since 2011.
The top eight singles players and doubles teams from the PIF Race to the WTA Finals Leaderboard go to the 2024 WTA Finals, with wild cards going to the top 20 Grand Slam winners. The WTA Finals Billie Jean King Trophy will be awarded to the singles champion, and the Martina Navratilova Trophy will be given to the doubles champions, showcasing the finest players in the world.
