The WTA Finals takes center stage as world’s best battle in the desert

There is a lot on the line for the top eight women’s singles tennis players in the world as they descend on the desert to play in the WTA Finals at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden, which begins Sunday.

Yes, there’s the prestige that comes with being the best of the best. Of course finishing the season with a victory, can be a capper to a great year and catapult a player to hot start in 2027. And, oh yeah, one more thing: A bunch of money.

Advertisement

Tennis fans that are just learning about the WTA Finals with its round-robin format may not know that if a player goes undefeated and wins all five of her matches at this event she will bring home a whopper of a monetary prize. Last year, current World No. 1 pulled off that rare feat, and left the tournament with a check for $5,235,000. It was, at the time, recognized by the Guinness World Book as the largest single-event payout in women’s sports history.

For comparison’s sake, Aryna Sabalenka, who won the BNP Paribas Open here in March earned a $1,151,380 for her effort.

The prize pool is less this year, but if someone were to have a perfect week like Rybakina did at this event last year, they would take home $3,370,000. Here is how the payouts work:

Advertisement

• Participation fee: $220,000

• Any round-robin win: $230,000

• Semifinals win: $820,000

• Finals win: $1,640,000

And one more thing, the winner also gets a new car from the tour’s partnership with Mercedes, it’s a purple Mercedes-AMG SL 55 4Matic and will be on display at the tournament.

Mirra Andreeva, who is one of three first-timers at this year’s WTA Finals and is only 19 years old, said she got to sit in the car during a photo shoot.

“Well, I do not have my driver’s license yet. I’m planning on getting it maybe in the end of this year, maybe,” she said. “Actually we used this car for the photo shoot. I was able to sit inside. Obviously I played with it a little bit. They didn’t give me the key, unfortunately. I don’t know. It’s a very nice car. Very comfortable. Even if I do not have my driver’s license, as I say many times, I know how to drive. I know how to, you know, get around in the car. It’s not going to be a problem.”

Andreeva was then asked if she’s admitting to driving a car without a license, to which she answered playfully: “No, I am not saying that. I am not saying that at all. I have not driven. I just believe in myself that I can drive the car without a driver’s license. But I will not do that. I will only do that when I get the license.”

Why is the WTA Finals in Indian Wells?

This tournament has been played the last two years in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and was supposed to be played there this year, too, which was to be year three of a three-year contract. But the WTA decided to cut ties with that relationship worried that it was unsafe in the current geopolitical climate to hold a large-scale tournament there.

Advertisement

Looking for a fill-in, the tour chose Indian Wells, which already has all the infrastructure built in due to hosting the BNP Paribas Open in March.

It will be a one-time occurrence, though, as the WTA has already announced that the WTA Finals will be played next year in Charlotte, N.C.

Just the WTA Finals facts

What: The end-of-the year tournament with only the top eight women’s singles players and top eight women’s doubles players competing.

When: The event starts Sunday, Nov. 8 and ends Sunday, Nov. 15

Where: The Indian Wells Tennis Garden in Indian Wells, California. Of note, all the action will take place on the 8,000-seat Stadium 2. The big Stadium 1 will not be used for the event.

Advertisement

Daily schedule: The first six days are round-robin and the schedule is the same, with two singles matches back-to-back starting at noon and two doubles matches following that each night. On Saturday semifinal day, the schedule remains the same as the women’s semifinals will start at noon and the doubles semifinals after. Sunday’s championship day will see the singles championship match at noon and the doubles to follow.

Tickets: Tickets are available at wtafinals.com and start at $75.

How does the WTA Finals round-robin format work

The eight singles players have split into two pools of our. In one pool is Elena Rybakina, Coco Gauff, Jessica Pegula and Linda Noskova. In the other is Aryna Sabalenka, Mirra Andreeva, Elina Svitolina and Karolina Muchova.

Advertisement

The four players in each pool will play the other three in a round robin series of matches that ends Friday. At the end of Friday, the top two from each pool will advance to the semifinals and the bottom two will be eliminated. Semifinals are played Saturday and the Finals on Sunday.

So the simplest difference is a player can lose a match but not be eliminated like at the BNP Paribas Open. Coco Gauff, for example, won this event in 2024 despite losing one of her round robin matches.

Noskova, one of three newcomers to the event, said the format will require some different thinking.

“Yeah, it’s the most competitive tournament that one can play in a year,” she said. “Obviously also thesituation where you can lose a match and win the whole thing is very, very new to me. I’ve seen people do it. It’s a great way to show the fighting spirit. I cannot wait for what happens in the first few rounds.”

Advertisement

Is the full schedule already known for round-robin play?

Well, kinda. So if you want to buy a ticket, and there’s one player in particular you really want to see, we can help with that.

The singles schedule is set for Sunday and Monday, the opening day for each pool.

• Sunday (Nov. 8): Elena Rybakina vs. Linda Noskova (noon); Coco Gauff vs. Jessica Pegula (to follow)

• Monday (Nov. 9): Aryna Sabalenka vs. Karolina Muchova (noon); Mirra Andreeva vs. Elina Svitolina (to follow)

Now the schedule for the rest of the round-robin play Tuesday through Friday has not been figured out, but which players play on which days has been. It’s a simple alternating days format.

• Tuesday and Thursday: Rybakina, Noskova, Gauff and Pegula

• Wednesday and Friday: Sabalenka, Muchova, Andreeva and Svitolina

What about the doubles?

Yes all the best doubles teams will be playing as well using the exact same format and their games will be in the night shift, starting each day after the second singles match concludes.

Advertisement

Here are the pools for the doubles teams:

DOUBLES GROUP 1

• (1) Gabriela Dabrowski (Canada) & Luisa Stefani (Brazil)

• (3) Guo Hanyu (China) & Kristina Mladenovic (France)

• (5) Hsieh Su-Wei (Chinese Taipei) & Jelena Ostapenko (Latvia)

• (7) Elise Mertens (Belgium) & Zhang Shuai (China)

DOUBLES GROUP 2

• (2) Katerina Siniakova (Czechia) & Taylor Townsend (USA)

• (4) Cristina Bucsa (Spain) & Nicole Melichar-Martinez (USA)

• (6) Ellen Perez (Australia) & Demi Schuurs (Netherlands)

• (8) Sara Errani (Italy) & Jasmine Paolini (Italy)

This article originally appeared on Palm Springs Desert Sun: The WTA Finals takes center stage as world’s best battle in the desert

Disclaimer : This story is auto aggregated by a computer programme and has not been created or edited by DOWNTHENEWS. Publisher: Sports.yahoo.com