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WTA Finals 2023: Everything you need to know about the star-studded finale


The 2023 season is almost coming to a close, which means that the iconic WTA Finals are upon us. And we, at Tennishead, have everything you need to know ahead of the year-end event!

What are the WTA Finals?

The WTA Finals is the season ending tournament for the women’s tennis tour, featuring the top eight singles players and doubles teams from the year.

Boca Raton in Florida, United States, hosted the first of this prestigious event back in 1972, with a 17-year-old Chris Evert winning her first of what became four singles titles.

How do the WTA Finals work?

Both the singles and doubles tournaments are played in a round-robin format, with two groups consisting of four players/teams.

Each competitor plays one another and the top two from each group will advance to the semi-finals, with the top finisher from each group playing the second placed finisher in the other.

From this point, the semi-final and final matches will be played in a traditional knockout format.

When are the 2023 WTA Finals?

The WTA Finals begin on Sunday 29th October, and the tournament will conclude with the singles and doubles finals on Sunday 5th November.

Round-robin matches will be played from Sunday 29th October-Friday 3rd November, with the knockout rounds taking place on the following Saturday and Sunday.

Where are the 2023 WTA Finals?

The WTA Finals were awarded to Cancun this year, with Mexico hosting the tournament for the second time in three years.

Players will battle it out at the Plaza Quintana Roo, with building work for the new tennis facilities going right up to the wire.

So much so that earlier this week, Aryna Sabalenka’s coach revealed that there was only two practice courts until the eve of the tournament and only one racket stringer on site.

Who is playing the 2023 WTA Finals?

It is an almost unchanged lineup from last year in the singles event, with only 2022 and 2023 Wimbledon champion’s Elena Rybakina and Marketa Vondrousova making their respective debuts.

World No.1 and 2022 finalist Aryna Sabalenka headlines the field, as she hopes to secure the year-end No.1 status for the first time.

Iga Swiatek will be hoping to crash Sabalenka’s party in Cancun, with the Pole trailing her Belarusian rival by a considerable 630 points.

Maria Sakkari was expected to arrive in Mexico as an alternate, however Karolina Muchova’s withdrawal due to injury means that the Greek has confirmed a third consecutive qualification to the year-end event.

Karolina Muchova - Instagram 2023

In case anyone else withdraws from the tournament, Barbora Krejcikova will be present as the next alternate.

There is guaranteed to be a first-time singles WTA Finals champion this year, with 2022 champion Caroline Garcia not being able to follow up on her success in Fort Worth last year.

Here is the full singles field:

Singles 

  1. Aryna Sabalenka
  2. Iga Swiatek
  3. Coco Gauff
  4. Elena Rybakina
  5. Jessica Pegula
  6. Ons Jabeur
  7. Marketa Vondrousova
  8. Maria Sakkari

READ MORE: Karolina Muchova ‘heartbroken’ to withdraw from debut WTA Finals

Both Jessica Pegula and Coco Gauff will be doing double duty in singles and doubles once again, and they will certainly be hoping to improve on their 0-6 records from Fort Worth.

Elise Mertens returns as defending champion, however she will be hoping to win a second consecutive title with a different partner in Storm Hunter.

The only team that have previously won the WTA Finals title together are seven-time Grand Slam doubles champions Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova, who were victorious in Guadalajara back in 2021.

Here is the full doubles field:

Doubles

  1. Jessica Pegula and Coco Gauff
  2. Storm Hunter and Elise Mertens
  3. Shuko Aoyama and Ena Shibahara 
  4. Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova
  5. Demi Schuurs and Desirae Krawczyk  
  6. Laura Siegemund and Vera Zvonareva
  7. Erin Routliffe and Gabriela Dabrowski
  8. Ellen Perez and Nicole Melichar-Martinez

How many ranking points are on offer at the WTA Finals?

There is the possibility of a colossal 1,500 points on offer for both singles and doubles players, if they can achieve the impressive feat of winning all five matches in Cancun.

Even if players lose all three matches they will be awarded 375 points, which is more than you would get for winning a WTA 250 event or reaching a WTA 500 final.

Here is the full ranking points breakdown:

Stage in tournament Points
Champion(s) RR* + 750
Runner-up RR + 330
Semi-finalists RR 
Round-robin win per match 250
Round-robin loss per match 125

*RR – Round-robin points earned

What is the prize money for the 2023 WTA Finals?

There is a total of $9,000,000 in prize money on offer this year, with players especially rewarded for reaching the final of the year-end event.

All players receive a participation fee as a reward for just qualifying for the tournament, and can earn up to a total of $2,268,000 in singles, with doubles teams able to earn as much as $504,000.

Here is the full breakdown of prize money for 2023:

Stage in tournament Singles Prize Money Doubles Prize Money*
Champion RR + $1,476,000 RR** + $306,000
Runner-up RR + $756,000 RR + $144,000
Semi-finalists RR + $54,000 RR + $9,000
Round-robin win per match +$198,000  +$36,000
Round-robin loss per match $0 $0
Participation fee $198,000  $90,000

*Prize Money per team

**RR – Round-robin prize money earned

Previous winners of the WTA Finals

This year will be the 52nd singles edition of the season finale and 47th time it has also been held in doubles.

Last year saw Caroline Garcia beat Aryna Sabalenka in the singles final, with the Frenchwoman lifting the biggest title of her decorated career.

There was a surprise in the doubles final, with Elise Mertens and Veronika Kudermetova stunning defending champions Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova.

Martina Navratilova is the most successful player at the WTA Finals, with the highest number of  titles in both singles (8) and doubles (13).

And here are the last 10 champions of the year-end tournament:

READ MORE: WTA Finals: Who has won the most Tour titles?

Year Location Singles Winner Doubles Winners
2012 Istanbul, Turkey Serena Williams (3) Maria Kirilenko & Nadia Petrova (2)
2013 Istanbul, Turkey Serena Williams (4) Hsieh Su-wei & Peng Shuai
2014 Singapore Serena Williams (5) Cara Black (3) & Sania Mirza (1)
2015 Singapore Agnieszka Radwańska Martina Hingis (3) & Sania Mirza (2)
2016 Singapore Dominika Cibulkova  Ekaterina Makarova & Elena Vesnina 
2017 Singapore Caroline Wozniacki Timea Babos (1) & Andrea Hlaváčková 
2018 Singapore Elina Svitolina Timea Babos (2) & Kristina Mladenovic (1)
2019 Shenzhen, China Ashleigh Barty Timea Babos (3) & Kristina Mladenovic (2)
2020 Not held due to the Covid-19 pandemic                   –                              –
2021 Guadalajara, Mexico Garbine Muguruza Barbora Krejcikova & Katerina Siniakova 
2022 Fort Worth, USA Caroline Garcia Veronika Kudermetova & Elise Mertens

How can you watch the 2023 WTA Finals?

You can watch the 2023 WTA Finals exclusively on Amazon Prime Video in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

For more information on where to watch the blockbuster event in your location, click here to visit the WTA website.

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Matthew Johns, Tennishead Writer, is a professional tennis journalist with a specialist degree in Sports Journalism. He's a keen tennis player having represented his local club and University plus he's also a qualified tennis coach. Matthew has a deep knowledge of tennis especially the ATP Tour and thrives on breaking big tennis news stories for Tennishead.