WTA Finals 2023 Lineup Confirmed: Who has qualified?

October 7, 2023

Tennis News, Tennis Tournaments, WTA Tennis Players

WTA Finals 2023 Lineup Confirmed: Who has qualified for the year-end tournament?

The star-studded lineup for the 2023 WTA Finals in Cancun has officially been set, with the eight best players from the year preparing to go head-to-head once more.

Cancun will be hosting the year-end tournament for the first time later this month, with the event taking place from Sunday 29th October to Sunday 5th November.

Heading into the final WTA 1000 event of the year in Beijing, there were still three more places to be confirmed in the singles event and following the quarter-final results we now know which eight players will be heading to Mexico in a few weeks time.

With last year’s winner Caroline Garcia not qualifying this year, we are guaranteed a first-time WTA Finals champion in 2023 and this is who will be in contention for the illustrious title:

1. Aryna Sabalenka

The standout player on the WTA tour in 2023 has been Aryna Sabalenka, with the Belarusian winning her maiden major at the Australian Open at the beginning of the year.

The 25-year-old has also won her second Madrid Masters title this year, as well as reaching the US Open final, where she was beaten by Coco Gauff.

As a result, she has been rewarded with the world No.1 ranking and will be hoping to stamp her authority at her fourth consecutive WTA Finals appearance (third in singles), having finished as runner-up last year.

2. Iga Swiatek

Although Swiatek has not managed to maintain the dominance that she had in 2022, the Pole has still added to her Grand Slam tally with a third Roland Garros crown in her young career.

4!!!!!???#RolandGarros pic.twitter.com/JiBQy6bUif

— Iga Świątek (@iga_swiatek) June 10, 2023

The 22-year-old has won three other titles this year (Doha, Stuttgart and Warsaw), and will be hoping to claim her first WTA 1000 crown of the year in Beijing tomorrow.

It will be the third consecutive time that the world No.2 has qualified for the WTA Finals, with her best performance coming last year when she reached the semi-finals.

3. Coco Gauff

Prior to losing in the first round of Wimbledon, Coco Gauff was having a good year, but since then has turned it into an excellent year.

The American has won 22 of her last 24 matches, that have included lifting her maiden Grand Slam title (US Open), WTA 1000 title (Cincinnati) and WTA 500 title (Washington D.C.).

This has propelled the 19-year-old up to a career-high ranking of No.3, and she will be hoping to vastly improve on her debut performance at the tournament last year where she lost all three round-robin matches in straight sets.

4. Elena Rybakina

Elena Rybakina is the first singles player representing Kazakhstan to confirm her qualification for the WTA Finals, and it will come as great relief to her fans after she was unable to do so in 2022 despite winning Wimbledon, as there were no points available.

Rybakina has continued her impressive form into 2023, winning WTA 1000 titles in both Indian Wells and Rome, as well as reaching her second Grand Slam final at the Australian Open.

The 24-year-old has hit more aces on the WTA tour (401) than anyone else in this field, and will be hoping to use that firepower on her debut appearance.

235- Elena Rybakina has now served 235 aces at WTA 1000 events in 2023. Since the format was introduced in 2009, Rybakina now has the most of any player in a calendar year, surpassing Karolina Pliskova's 234 in 2019. Deliver.#ChinaOpen | @ChinaOpen @WTA @WTA_insider pic.twitter.com/jusxSx0yji

— OptaAce (@OptaAce) October 6, 2023

5. Jessica Pegula

Like her doubles partner Gauff, Jessica Pegula is also returning to the WTA Finals for a second successive year after losing all three round-robin matches in 2022.

Pegula has had another consistent season, reaching two Grand Slam quarter-finals and winning her second WTA 1000 title in Montreal.

Once again, the 29-year-old will be doing double duty at the year-end event, as she has qualified for both the singles and doubles tournament alongside Gauff.

6. Marketa Vondrousova

Marketa Vondrousova will be making her debut at the WTA Finals in 2023, having become the surprise Grand Slam winner of the year.

The Czech shocked the world at SW19, when she became the first unseeded woman to win the Wimbledon singles title.

She has since reached the quarter-finals of the US Open, and will be hoping to cause another shock when she arrives in Cancun.

7. Ons Jabeur

Although a maiden Grand Slam title continues to elude Ons Jabeur, she has still managed to qualify for the WTA Finals for a second consecutive season.

The Tunisian has done so by reaching the final of Wimbledon once again (where she was beaten by Vondrousova), and by winning titles in Charleston and more recently Ningbo.

This one has been special ? Bye lovely #Charleston ❤️ thank you for having me ?? and see you next year ?? #AlwaysBelieve pic.twitter.com/KSVAkYS92u

— Ons Jabeur (@Ons_Jabeur) April 10, 2023

Jabeur will be hoping to escape the round-robin stage in 2023, something that she was unable to do in Fort Worth last year.

8. Karolina Muchova

The final player to qualify for the WTA Finals in 2023 is Karolina Muchova, being the second Czech woman to make her debut at the year-end tournament.

Despite being the only player in this list not to have won a title this year, Muchova has overcome a variety of different injuries in recent seasons to reach her maiden Grand Slam (Roland Garros) and WTA 1000 (Cincinnati) finals in 2023.

Muchova will no doubt be the dark horse in Mexico having just edged out Maria Sakkari, who will be an alternate in case anyone withdraws, to take the final spot.