Editor's note: This week, we looked at the road each of the eight singles players and eight doubles teams took to qualify for this year's GNP Seguros WTA Finals Cancun in Mexico.
Singles
Monday: No.1 Sabalenka | No.2 Swiatek
Tuesday: No.3 Gauff | No.4 Rybakina
Wednesday: No.5 Pegula | No.6 Jabeur
Thursday: No. 7 Vondrousova | No.8 Sakkari
Doubles
Monday: No.1 Gauff and Pegula | No.2 Hunter and Mertens
Tuesday: No.3 Aoyama and Shibahara | No.4 Krejcikova and Siniakova
Wednesday: No.5 Krawczyk and Schuurs | No.6 Siegemund and Zvonareva
Thursday: No.7 Dabrowski and Routliffe | No.8 Melichar-Martinez and Perez
Season at a glance
Having teamed up for the first time in May 2022 and reached back-to-back WTA 1000 finals at Toronto and Cincinnati that year, Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Ellen Perez stuck together and maintained their level throughout 2023.
The American-Australian duo matched their best Slam result as a team, following their 2022 US Open semifinal run with another at Roland Garros 2023. They returned to the Cincinnati final for a second year running and made a further three finals in Austin, Eastbourne and Cleveland.
But despite these deep runs spread evenly throughout the year, Melichar-Martinez and Perez have one statistic that they'll be seeking to rectify. They have a 1-7 record in tour-level finals and 0-4 this year. Three of their final losses in 2023 were match-tiebreak heartbreakers. Melichar-Martinez and Perez will be motivated to change that in Cancun.
By the numbers
2023 win-loss record as a team: 27-24
Titles won as a team: None
Grand Slam record: Australian Open R2 (l. Ruse/Kostyuk), Roland Garros SF (l. Hsieh/Wang), Wimbledon R1 (l. Alexandrova/Yang), US Open R2 (l. Linette/Pera)
Melichar-Martinez ranking: 21
Perez ranking: 22
Melichar-Martinez previous WTA Finals appearances: 2018 QF (with Peschke), 2021 SF (with Schuurs)
Perez previous WTA Finals appearances: None
