All eyes are on the WTA Finals this week, as the best eight players in women’s tennis square off for one last time in 2024. But how does the event work? What is its format, who competes, and what is the schedule? Read on for the answers to these questions and more, as we break down all you need to know about the WTA Finals.
WTA Finals format
Qualification
The top eight players on the WTA Tour compete at the WTA Finals, and are selected based on how they perform in 2024. The way that is determined is by the amount of points they collect over the calendar year.
Every round of every event played offers a certain amount of points. Those points are added up after every week and at the end of the season the eight players with the most points qualify for the event. These are the eight best-performing players.
Structure
The structure of the event is rather simple. We have two groups of four players in each group. They are drawn according to pots and it’s a round-robin format. Each player plays the other three and the top two in the standings advance to the next round.
If some players have an equal amount of wins and losses, which tends to happen often, then there are a couple of tiebreakers that determine which player advances and which doesn't. The first of these is sets won, then games won, then head-to-head.
Semi-finals and Final
The top two players then go to the semi-finals, with the winner of one group facing the runner-up of the other group. The winners of that play in a final for the trophy.
2024 WTA Finals seeds
- Aryna Sabalenka
- Iga Swiatek
- Coco Gauff
- Qinwen Zheng
- Jessica Pegula
- Elena Rybakina
- Jasmine Paolini
- Barbora Krejcikova
2024 WTA Finals groups
The event features eight players that are drawn into two groups. The groups are drawn according to pots. Each group has one player from pot one, one player from pot two, one player from pot three, and one player from pot four, selected at random.
The pots are organised with the first one featuring the first and second in the WTA race. The second pot has the third and fourth, and the rest follows the same concept. This year we have the Purple Group and the Orange Group.
Purple group
- Aryna Sabalenka
- Jasmine Paolini
- Elena Rybakina
- Qinwen Zheng
Orange group
- Iga Swiatek
- Coco Gauff
- Jessica Pegula
- Barbora Krejcikova
Schedule for the 2024 WTA Finals
The event will start on Saturday, November 2nd. Each day will feature two singles matches and two doubles matches. The first singles match will begin at 15:30 local time in Riyadh, which will be 12:30 BST. The other singles matches will be scheduled following this, but play won’t begin until 6pm local time at the earliest.
This round-robin stage will go until Friday, November 8th, when the semi-finals will be played with the final being played on Saturday, November 9th.
WTA Finals points & prize money
The prize money at this event is not as straightforward as with some other events. Some things are set in stone, such as that this will be the highest prize money ever given out by a WTA Finals.
The winner of the event will walk away with no less than $4.45 million, but if they finish undefeated, that sum could go up to $5.15 million. Those things are set in stone. Now, this is where it gets a bit complicated.
Each win basically has a certain amount of worth. For example, if you win a match in the round-robin stage, you’re going to get $350,000 for it. Every match carries that prize money, so regardless if you advance or not, you will get that for every match you win, so winning even one match is great.
The participation fee for each player is $335,000, so that’s what they get for basically losing all of their matches. If you win the semi-final, you will get $1,270,000 more on top of everything else.
The winner of the final gets $2,500,000 on top of that, which is where that final sum mentioned above comes from. When it comes to the points, it’s also a bit complicated because it depends on how you do.
Every win gives you 200 points, so again the same principle applies. Every win counts. If you win in the semi-final, you get 400 points, and winning in the final will get you 500 points additionally.
All this means that in 2024, the year-end No. 1 will be determined at this event, with Swiatek and Sabalenka battling it out once more as they did at last year’s Finals.
