2023 WTA Finals: Venue and dates, players and teams who qualified, the draw, prize money, streaming info

It is that time of the year again when the WTA Tour focus switches to its showpiece event, the WTA Finals, and this year’s star-studded event will take place in Cancun, Mexico, for the first time.

This year marks the 52nd edition of the singles event while the doubles competition is in its 47th edition.

What is the WTA Finals and when does it take place?

The WTA’s end-of-season tournament, the WTA Finals, is the final event on the women’s tennis calendar and the competition features the eight best-performing singles players and eight best doubles teams.

The players who compete at the WTA Finals qualify for the tournament based on their WTA Rankings throughout the calendar year.

A bit of history…

The first-ever WTA end-of-year tournament took place in 1972 and was dubbed the Virginia Slims Championships before it was renamed the WTA Tour Championships and then the WTA Finals.

It is the fifth biggest WTA event on the calendar after the four Grand Slams and it also offers the biggest prize money pool and points in women’s tennis (more on that below) outside of the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and US Open.

This year’s tournament will start on Monday, October 30 and finishes on Sunday, November 5 with the singles and doubles finals both taking place on the final day.

Tell us more about this year’s venue for the event, please…

The WTA Finals has not had a permanent venue in several years as last year it took place in Fort Worth, Texas, the previous year Guadalajara, Mexico, was the host while Shenzhen in China staged the tournament in 2019.

This year the honour goes to Plaza Quintana Roo in Cancun, Mexico, with organisers set to build a temporary arena to host the showpiece event.

Previous winners…

Caroline Garcia is the defending champion, but the Frenchwoman failed to qualify for the 2023 edition. In fact, there will be a new name on the trophy as none of the players in the singles field have won the title before.

It’s been a week since we crowned our year-end champions 🤩

ya’ll fancy a @WTAFinals roundup 🤠 pic.twitter.com/C8dFg18crV

— wta (@WTA) November 15, 2022

Garbine Muguruza won in 2021 while Ashleigh Barty won in 2019. No tournament was held in 2020 due to Covid-19.

in the doubles, Elise Mertens is looking to make it back-to-back titles as she won the trophy alongside Veronika Kudermetova last year while Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova were the 2021 winners.

Who are the eight players/teams who have qualified?

World No 1 Aryna Sabalenka leads the field and she qualified along with four-time Grand Slam winner Iga Swiatek, US Open champion Coco Gauff and Elena Rybakina at the conclusion of the final Grand Slam of the year at Flushing Meadows.

Jessica Pegula was next to join them as she booked her ticket at the Pan Pacific Open and the battle for the final three spots was concluded after the China Open with Ons Jabeur, Marketa Vondrousova and Maria Sakkari – a replacement for the injured Karolina Muchova – the players to punch flights to Cancun.

As for the doubles teams, American pair Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula will be on double duty in Mexico as they were the first doubles team to book their places.

They will be joined in the draw by Storm Hunter and Elise Mertens; Shuko Aoyama and Ena Shibahara; Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova; Desirae Krawczyk and Demi Schuurs; Laura Siegemund and Vera Zvonareva; Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe, and Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Ellen Perez.

READ MORE: 2023 WTA Finals: A statistical look at the eight women who have qualified for Cancun

What about the event format?

As mentioned before, the top eight singles players and the top eight doubles teams in the WTA Rankings at the end of the season qualify for the WTA Finals.

For the singles tournament, the players are split into two groups of four and the same principle works for the doubles event.

Each player/team then compete/s against the other three players/teams in her/their group and the top two in each group qualify for the semi-final. The player/team who finishes first in Group A/B take/s on the player/team who finishes second in Group B/A with the winners advancing to the finals.

When is the draw for the WTA Finals?

The draw for the season-ending event takes place a day or two before the tournament gets underway and it is usually a fancy dress-up event with all eight singles players and all eight doubles players in attendance.

The group names are yet to be revealed, but one thing is certain, Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek won’t meet in the round-robin stage as they will go into two different groups as they are the top two seeds.

In the doubles draw, Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula are the top seeds with Storm Hunter and Elise Mertens headlining the other group.

What about points and prize money?

The prize money breakdown for the 2023 WTA Finals has not yet been revealed with organisers only stating that the total prize pool will be $9,000,000.

It is a big increase from 2022 when $5,000,000 was on offer and this year the undefeated singles champion will earn $3,024,000.

2023 prize money in the singles:
$198,000 – Participation fee
$198,000 – Fee per round-robin win
$54,000 – Advancing to semi-final
$756,000 – Semi-final win
$1,476,000 – Final win

2023 prize money in the singles:
$90,000 – Participation fee
$36,000 – Fee per round-robin win
$9,000 – Advancing to semi-final
$144,000 – Semi-final win
$306,000 – Final win

How WTA Finals points are awarded…
– 125 points for each match played during the round robin
– 125 points for each match won during the round robin
– 330 points for winning the semi-final
– 420 points for winning the final

Which TV channels and streaming services will broadcast the tournament?

Amazon Prime is in the final few months of its big deal to broadcast WTA events in the United Kingdom and Ireland so you can still catch the action on their streaming services.

Tennis Channel is the main broadcaster in the United States while TVA Sports, DAZN and TSN all have rights in Canada.

Tennis Channel covers the United States with a combination of TVA Sports, DAZN, TSN broadcasting WTA tournaments in Canada.

beIN Sports, Setanta, Super Tennis, Tennis Channel and other local broadcasters air WTA events in Europe and Australia while SuperSport is the go-to channel sub-Saharan Africa.

ESPN will broadcast the event in Latin and Central America and iQIYI, Now TV, DAZN and StarHub cover parts of Asia.