WTA Finals 2022 Tournament Preview

October 27, 2022

Tennis News, Tennis Tournaments, WTA Tennis Players

WTA Finals 2022 Tournament Preview

The WTA Finals 2022 concludes the WTA season as the best of the best battle it out for the last title of the year.

Join Tennishead as we tell you all you need to know about the elite season-ending event.

Location

The WTA Finals 2022 are being held in Fort Worth, Texas. The event will take place on indoor hard courts at Dickies Arena.

Dates

The Finals kick off on 31st October and conclude with the final on 7th November.

Players

Only the eight most elite players on the women’s tour qualify for the WTA Finals 2022. They are in order of seeding: Iga Swiatek, Ons Jabeur, Jessica Pegula, Coco Gauff, Maria Sakkari, Caroline Garcia, Aryna Sabalenka and Daria Kasatkina.

Swiatek, Sakkari, Garcia and Sabalenka are making their second appearance. Swiatek Sakkari and Sabalenka debuted in 2021, while Garcia last qualified in 2017. The rest of the field are making their WTA Finals debut in 2022.

Gauff, 18, is the youngest player competing. Meanwhile, Garcia, 29, is the oldest. Defending champion Garbine Muguruza did not qualify, finishing 49th in the race to the Finals.

Format

The WTA Finals begins with a round robin format in two groups of four. The top two finishers from each group advance to the semi-finals. The top player from each group will face the second player from the other group.

Players will complete round robin matches over the first six days of the event, before the semi-finals on Saturday 6th November and the final on Sunday 7th November.

Draw

The two singles groups are Tracy Austin Group and Nancy Richey Group, named after two American tennis icons. Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff will play out a rematch of the French Open final in Tracy Austin Group. Moreover, Swiatek will take on Caroline Garcia in the group too, the only woman at the Finals to have beaten the Pole in 2022.

Ons Jabeur and Jessica Pegula will contest a repeat of their Madrid Open final from May, which Jabeur won for her maiden WTA 1000 title. Pegula and Maria Sakkari also contested the recent Guadalajara Open final, where Pegula landed her first ever WTA 1000 title.

#WTAFinals Singles Draw

Tracy Austin Group
1. Iga Swiatek
4. Coco Gauff
6. Caroline Garcia
8. Daria Kasatkina

Nancy Richey Group
2. Ons Jabeur
3. Jessica Pegula
5. Maria Sakkari
7. Aryna Sabalenka pic.twitter.com/0hBHxKOR3y

— WTA Insider (@WTA_insider) October 29, 2022

Ranking points breakdown, singles

A player receives 125 points per match played. An additional 125 points is awarded per round robin win. 330 points are awarded for a semifinal win, and 420 points for winning the title.

Therefore, if a player wins all three round robin matches (750 points) and the semi-final and final, she will gain a maximum of 1500 points at the event.

Prize money breakdown, singles

The total prize pool for the WTA Finals 2022 is US$5,000,000. Players receive a base prize money of $110,000 for competing. They win an additional $110,000 for each round robin match win.

If a player reaches the semi-finals but loses they add $30,000. A semi-final win earns $420,000, and winning the final earns $820,000.

By going undefeated the champion can earn up to $1.68 million.