ST. PETERSBURG, FL, USA -- The WTA announced today the doubles teams of Sara Errani & Jasmine Paolini, Gabriela Dabrowski & Erin Routliffe and Katerina Siniakova & Taylor Townsend have qualified for the WTA Finals Riyadh.
They are the third, fourth and fifth pairings to secure their participation after Jelena Ostapenko & Lyudmyla Kichenok and Hsieh Su-Wei & Elise Mertens confirmed their qualification in September.
Over half the doubles field is now set for the WTA Finals Riyadh, with three qualification places remaining on the PIF Race to the WTA Finals.
While Jasmine Paolini will be making her WTA Finals debut, Sara Errani is no stranger to the prestigious season-ending event having competed in doubles from 2012-14 and also qualified in singles in 2012 and 2013.
The Italian duo picked up early season silverware at the WTA 500 Upper Austria Ladies Linz in February then tasted success on home soil by winning the WTA 1000 Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome. They finished as runners-up at Roland-Garros before rounding out a fairytale summer by winning the gold medal in doubles at the Paris Olympics, and confirmed their qualification for Riyadh by winning the China Open in Beijing over the weekend.
This season will mark Dabrowski’s sixth overall appearance at the WTA Finals, while her partner Routliffe made history at the event last season as the tournament’s first ever qualifier from New Zealand. The team, who went undefeated in the group stages in 2023, have enjoyed another outstanding season on the Hologic WTA Tour highlighted by winning the title at WTA 250 Rothesay Open Nottingham.
They also reached a further four finals at WTA 1000 events at the National Bank Open presented by Rogers (Toronto) and Miami Open presented by Itaú, WTA 250 Rothesay International Eastbourne and finally The Championships, Wimbledon, the latter of which saw Routliffe ascend to the PIF WTA World No.1 Ranking in doubles for the first time in her career.
Siniakova and Townsend, who won The Championships, Wimbledon in July, have confirmed their qualification as they will either finish in the Top 7 or end the season as the highest ranked Grand Slam winning team ranked between No.8-20 on the Leaderboard. Townsend will be making her WTA Finals debut, while Siniakova is set to make her sixth consecutive appearance at the event and she has reached the final three times, winning the title in 2021 and finishing as runner-up in 2018 and 2022.
The Czech-USA duo only teamed up in May but enjoyed instant success, reaching the quarterfinals at the WTA 1000 Internazionali BNL d'Italia in Rome then securing their Grand Slam title at Wimbledon, defeating fellow qualifiers Dabrowski and Routliffe in the final. They enjoyed another quarterfinal run at the WTA 1000 Cincinnati Open and capped off a fine summer by making the semifinals at the US Open.
The 2024 WTA Finals features the top 8 singles and doubles teams on the PIF Race to the WTA Finals Leaderboard (with the 8th spot going to the singles player and doubles team that have won a Grand Slam if ranked No.8 to No.20). This showcases the world’s best eight singles players and doubles teams 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.
For more information on how to buy tickets for the WTA Finals Riyadh, click here.
Click here to see the latest PIF Race to the WTA Finals Leaderboard in doubles.
