ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. – The WTA announced Thursday the doubles field for the 2021 Akron WTA Finals Guadalajara is confirmed. The pairings of Alexa Guarachi and Desirae Krawczyk, Darija Jurak and Andreja Klepac, and Sharon Fichman and Giuliana Olmos secured their spots at the year-end finale.
The three teams will join Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova, Shuko Aoyama and Ena Shibahara, Hsieh Su-Wei and Elise Mertens, Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Demi Schuurs, and Samantha Stosur and Zhang Shuai in Guadalajara.
The pairings of Coco Gauff and Caty McNally and Gabriela Dabrowski and Luisa Stefani also qualified, however the two teams will not be participating at this year’s WTA Finals, allowing for Fichman and Olmos to compete in Guadalajara for the prestigious WTA Finals Martina Navratilova Doubles Trophy.
Alexa Guarachi and Desirae Krawczyk will be making their debuts at the WTA Finals. Guarachi becomes the first Chilean to qualify in the tournament’s history. The pair picked up two titles this season, at the Adelaide International and the Internationaux de Strasbourg.
The Chilean-American duo also reached the semifinal stage at US Open, Credit One Charleston Open and Emilia-Romagna Open, helping them both achieve their career-high rankings this season, at No.11 and No.17, respectively.
Croatia’s Darija Jurak qualified for the year-end finale for the first time in her career, while her partner Andreja Klepac of Slovenia will make her third showing at the WTA Finals; she competed in Singapore in 2017 and 2018 with Maria José Martínez Sánchez.
Jurak and Klepac captured two titles in four finals in 2021, winning the Mubadala Silicon Valley Classic (San Jose) trophy a week before reaching another final at the National Bank Open (Montreal). They scored another title at the Bad Homburg Open presented by Engel & Volkers and finished runners-up at the Emilia-Romagna Open (Parma). In addition, they reached the final four at the Chicago Fall Tennis Classic as well as the last eight at Roland Garros.
Sharon Fichman and Giuliana Olmos will so be making their debut appearances at the WTA Finals this year after a standout season that saw them win the Internazionali BNL d’Italia (Rome) title, where they defeated two of the teams also competing in Guadalajara this year in Hsieh/Mertens and Aoyama/Shibahara.
The Canadian-Mexican pairing also made a semifinal showing at the bett1open (Berlin), advanced to the quarterfinals at the Australian Open, Porsche Tennis Grand Prix (Stuttgart) and Viking International Eastbourne, and reached the last 16 at Roland Garros and The Championships, Wimbledon.
Romania’s Raluca Olaru and Ukraine’s Nadiia Kichenok will serve as the alternate doubles team in Guadalajara after reaching four finals in 2021, winning the titles at the St. Petersburg Ladies Trophy and WTA Chicago Women’s Open, and runner-up finishes at the Bad Homburg Open presented by Engel & Volkers and the VTB Kremlin Cup (Moscow).
Guadalajara is playing host to the season-ending tournament for this year only, with the event returning to its home in Shenzhen, China in 2022.
The 2021 WTA Finals features the Top 8 singles players and doubles teams on the Porsche Race to the WTA Finals – which includes 50 WTA tournaments and four Grand Slams, competing in a round-robin format with the singles champion lifting the WTA Finals Billie Jean King Trophy and the doubles champions earning the WTA Finals Martina Navratilova Trophy.
The Porsche Race to the WTA Finals Leaderboard is updated each Monday and can be found here.
