2024 WTA Finals: The eight women who have qualified for season-ending event as Riyadh line-up is confirmed

Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka were the first to punch their tickets for the WTA Finals and the remaining six places have now been snapped up.

Defending champion Swiatek secured her place in the Riyadh event as she qualified at the beginning of August while Sabalenka joined the Pole on the list during her title run at the US Open.

Reigning world No 1 Swiatek had occupied top spot in the Race To Riyadh for several months, but she has missed out on the top seed status as Sabalenka overtook her during the final stretch.

With the Pole opting to skip her title defence at the China Open last week as well as the Wuhan event, Sabalenka enjoyed a title run in Wuhan to move to No 1 in the Race.

Sabalenka has moved to 9,091 points in the Live Rankings with Swiatek on 8,285 and neither player will compete again before the WTA Finals.

2024 WTA Finals line-up:

Aryna Sabalenka
Previous WTA Finals appearances: 3

Sabalenka started the year with the successful defence of her Australian Open title before winning her third Grand Slam at the US Open.

She made her WTA Finals in 2021, exiting after the round-robin phase, and the following year she finished runner-up to Caroline Garcia. Last year she was beaten in the semi-final by Swiatek.

Iga Swiatek
Previous WTA Finals appearances: 3

Swiatek will make her fourth WTA Finals appearance this year as she secured her place on the back of winning the French Open and four WTA 1000 tournaments.

The Pole won the 2023 WTA Finals undefeated as she defeated Gauff, Sabalenka and Jessica Pegula en route to lifting the title while in 2022 she lost in the last four against Sabalenka. On her debut in 2021, she failed to make it out of the group phase.

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Coco Gauff
Previous WTA Finals appearances: 2

2023 US Open champion Gauff will make her third appearance at the tournament and she has enjoyed mixed results.

During her debut campaign in 2022, she failed to win any of her round-robin matches, but last year she reached the semi-final before losing in straight sets against Jessica Pegula.

Jasmine Paolini
Previous WTA Finals appearances: 0

An incredible 2024 season has seen Paolini qualify for the WTA Finals for the first time in her career. She will play in both the singles and the doubles and she is the first Italian singles qualifier since Flavia Pennetta in 2015.

The 28-year-old qualified on the back of her runners-up finishes at the French Open and Wimbledon while she also won the Dubai Championships.

Paolini is currently fifth in the WTA Rankings while her previous best was 29th in October 2023.

Elena Rybakina
Previous WTA Finals appearances: 1

The 2022 Wimbledon champion made her WTA Finals debut last year, but failed to get out of the group phase.

Rybakina has had a stop-start 2024 season as she was a runner-up at the Qatar Open and Miami Open while she also made the semi-final at Wimbledon. However, she has also missed several tournaments due to illness and injury.

Jessica Pegula
Previous WTA Finals appearances: 2

A third consecutive WTA Finals for Pegula with the American hoping to go one better than her runners-up finish to Swiatek last year. In 2022 she exited in the group stage.

Pegula’s form in the second half of the season has been incredible as she won the Canadian Open and finished runner-up at the Cincinnati Open.

She then reached her maiden Grand Slam final, losing against Sabalenka at the US Open.

Zheng Qinwen
Previous WTA Finals appearances: 0

Zheng will make her WTA Finals debut at the 2024 edition in Riyadh and she qualified on the back of finishing runner-up at the Australian Open and Wuhan Open. She won two titles – the Palermo Ladies Open and gold at the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Barbora Krejcikova
Previous WTA Finals appearances: 1

Although Krejcikova failed to finish in the top eight of the WTA Rankings, she qualified as a Grand Slam winner as one spot is reserved for a player who won a major and finishes the year inside the top 20.

Krejcikova won Wimbledon in July, but has played very little tennis this year due to injury.