Road to the WTA Finals: Get to know the elite doubles teams in Riyadh

From new teams crashing the party to stalwarts who've leveled up, the WTA Finals Riyadh doubles field has it all. Some players who be making their debuts at the season-ending finale; others are returning to add to their all-time great legacies. Get to know more about the 2024 elite eight teams here.

Road to the WTA Finals: Sabalenka | Swiatek | Gauff | Paolini | Rybakina | Pegula | Zheng | Krejcikova

Meet the top doubles teams heading to Riyadh 

Lyudmyla Kichenok (UKR) and Jelena Ostapenko (LAT)

For the past three years, Lyudmyla Kichenok and Jelena Ostapenko have been a reliably constant partnership in the ever-changing world of doubles. In 2024, they were rewarded with their most successful season to date, both in terms of higher highs and greater consistency across the board.

Their season was bookended by their first two Grand Slam finals. In January, they were runners-up to Hsieh Su-Wei and Elise Mertens at the Australian Open. And in September, the Ukrainian-Latvian duo's power game blitzed the field at the US Open without the loss of a set. Those results mean that Ostapenko, the 2017 Roland Garros singles champion and 2019 Wimbledon mixed doubles runner-up, has now reached a final at each major.

In New York, the pair's off-court bond was also evident as well. Kichenok's wedding to Ostapenko's then-coach, Stanislav Khmarsky, had to be postponed after they reached the final.

Season snapshot:
2024 win-loss record: 31-11
2024 titles: 3 (Brisbane, Eastbourne, US Open)
2024 finals: 1 (Australian Open)
Doubles rankings: No.3 (Kichenok) and No.4 (Ostapenko)
Previous WTA Finals appearances: 1
Best WTA Finals result: SF (2022 with each other)

Gabriela Dabrowski (CAN) and Erin Routliffe (NZL)

In 2023, Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe were an unexpected second-half sensation. Having only paired up in August, they rocketed into WTA Finals contention with spectacular results including the US Open title.

This season was one of successful consolidation. Dabrowski and Routliffe did not lose before the quarterfinals at any of the majors they contested together and added a second Grand Slam final to their resumes at Wimbledon, where they were runners-up to Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend.

Even an injury that sidelined Dabrowski during the clay season didn't stop their momentum. On her return, they immediately captured the Nottingham title and reached the final at three of their next four tournaments.

Season snapshot:
2024 win-loss record: 34-14
2024 titles: 1 (Nottingham)
2024 finals: 4 (Miami, Eastbourne, Wimbledon, Toronto)
Doubles rankings: No.2 (Routliffe) and No.5 (Dabrowski)
Previous WTA Finals appearances: 5 (Dabrowski), 1 (Routliffe), 1 as a team
Best WTA Finals result: SF (2023 with each other)

Hsieh Su-Wei (TPE) and Elise Mertens (BEL)

Last year, Hsieh Su-Wei made a remarkable comeback from an 18-month hiatus, reasserting her status as one of the best doubles players in the world. She won three of the first four Grand Slam events of her return, all with different partners. The last of those was this year's Australian Open, alongside former accomplice Elise Mertens -- the pair's second major crown together following Wimbledon 2021.

The reunion paid dividends through the first half of the year, with Hsieh and Mertens adding Indian Wells and Birmingham to their haul of five trophies together. It tailed off in the second half -- the pair played just two tournaments after Wimbledon, losing their openers at both. But historically, they've come alive at the WTA Finals. Mertens has reached at least the semifinals every year since 2021, all with different partners. And Hsieh has yet to lose before the final.

Season snapshot:
2024 win-loss record: 27-11
2024 titles: 3 (Australian Open, Indian Wells, Birmingham)
2024 finals: 0
Doubles rankings: No.6 (Hsieh) and No.8 (Mertens)
Previous WTA Finals appearances: 4 (Hsieh), 5 (Mertens), 1 as a team
Best WTA Finals result: Hsieh W (2013 with Peng Shuai), Mertens W (2022 with Veronika Kudermetova), as a team F (2021)

Sara Errani (ITA) and Jasmine Paolini (ITA)

When Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini ended 2023 with their first title together, a modest WTA 250 in Monastir, few could have predicted the Italian duo would become one of the defining partnerships of 2024.

In one sense, it was a crescendo that built toward the Paris Olympic Games, the motivation for them to start playing with each other in the first place last year. They went step-by-step: a WTA 500 title in Linz was followed by a WTA 1000 on home soil in Rome and then by a first Grand Slam final at Roland Garros. By the time the Olympics rolled around, Errani and Paolini were among the gold-medal favorites -- and they came through in style, edging Mirra Andreeva and Diana Shnaider 2-6, 6-1, [10-7] in the final. That result completed Errani's career Golden Slam in doubles and re-established the 37-year-old as one of the all-time greats of the game. She will compete at the WTA Finals for the first time since 2014.

But they didn't stop there. The combination of Paolini's power and Errani's sharp tactical brain also took them to another WTA 1000 title in Beijing. And the success of their partnership had a knock-on effect on the singles game, too. Paolini has qualified for the Finals in singles, too, and credits her doubles experience -- and Errani's advice -- for the improvements in her game that took her to the Roland Garros and Wimbledon finals.

Season snapshot:
2024 win-loss record: 34-11
2024 titles: 4 (Linz, Rome, Paris Olympic Games, Beijing)
2024 finals: 1 (Roland Garros)
Doubles rankings: No.7 (Errani) and No.10 (Paolini)
Previous WTA Finals appearances: 3 (Errani), 0 (Paolini), 0 as a team
Best WTA Finals result: Errani SF (2012, 2013 with Roberta Vinci)

Caroline Dolehide (USA) and Desirae Krawczyk (USA)

One of three brand-new 2024 teams to qualify for the WTA Finals Riyadh, Caroline Dolehide and Desirae Krawczyk set down a marker when they reached the final in just their second tournament together in Doha.

The American duo established themselves as an all-surface threat over a spectacular summer in which they reached back-to-back Grand Slam semifinals at Roland Garros and Wimbledon, then lifted their first trophy as a team in Toronto. This title run was notable for its clutch play. Dolehide and Krawczyk won three of their four matches in super-tiebreaks, and the fourth in two regular tiebreaks.

Season snapshot:
2024 win-loss record: 25-15
2024 titles: 1 (Toronto)
2024 finals: 1 (Doha)
Doubles rankings: No.11 (Krawczyk) and No.12 (Dolehide)
Previous WTA Finals appearances: 3 (Krawczyk), 0 (Dolehide), 0 as a team
Best WTA Finals result: Krawczyk SF (2022 with Demi Schuurs)

Nicole Melichar-Martinez (USA) and Ellen Perez (AUS)

Last year, Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Ellen Perez snuck into the WTA Finals as the eighth-placed qualifiers -- then made it all the way to the final, falling to only Laura Siegemund and Vera Zvonareva. The American-Australian pair have built on that success in 2024, with one key improvement.

In 2023, Melichar-Martinez and Perez lost all five of the finals they reached. They lost their first two this year, too, dropping their overall record in title matches to 1-9, with the sole win coming at WTA 250 level at Cleveland 2022. They finally snapped the streak in San Diego, though -- one of the two WTA 500 tournaments they won this season.

Season snapshot:
2024 win-loss record: 35-20 (31-20 at tour level)
2024 titles: 2 (San Diego, Bad Homburg plus Lleida WTA 125)
2024 finals: 3 (Linz, Dubai, Ningbo)
Doubles rankings: No.13 (Melichar-Martinez) and No.15 (Perez)
Previous WTA Finals appearances: 3 (Melichar-Martinez), 1 (Perez), 1 as a team
Best WTA Finals result: F (2023 with each other)

Chan Hao-Ching (TPE) and Veronika Kudermetova

Last year, the team no one saw coming was Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe. This year, it's Chan Hao-Ching and Veronika Kudermetova who gave the rest of the field a head start -- but still roared past them into their first WTA Finals together.

Chan and Kudermetova only joined forces in April, but won their second tournament as a pair to take the Stuttgart title. Consistent high-level performances followed: back-to-back WTA 500 finals on grass in Berlin and Bad Homburg, followed by a run to the US Open semifinals and a first WTA 1000 final in Beijing.

Chan, 31, is returning to the WTA Finals for the first time since 2019. All three of her previous appearances came alongside older sister Latisha. Kudermetova is unbeaten at the WTA Finals to date: she won the title with a perfect 5-0 record alongside Elise Mertens in her only previous appearance in 2022.

Season snapshot:
2024 win-loss record: 28-9
2024 titles: 1 (Stuttgart)
2024 finals: 3 (Berlin, Bad Homburg, Beijing)
Doubles rankings: No.16 (Chan) and No.18 (Kudermetova)
Previous WTA Finals appearances: 3 (Chan), 1 (Kudermetova), 0 as a team
Best WTA Finals result: Chan SF (2015 with Latisha Chan), Kudermetova W (2022 with Elise Mertens)

Katerina Siniakova (CZE) and Taylor Townsend (USA)

Katerina Siniakova may have only qualified for the WTA Finals Riyadh in eighth place -- and due to the rule allowing Grand Slam champions a berth as long as they finish in the Top 20 -- but is there any doubt that the Czech is 2024's MVP in doubles? Siniakova captured five titles this year, including two Grand Slams -- all with different partners. Her individual doubles record is 46-11 and she now owns nine major titles in total.

It was largely a run of bad luck that forced Siniakova to prove herself in this way. She'd intended to team up with Storm Hunter all year, only for the Australian to suffer an Achilles injury in April. Her next partner, Taylor Townsend, injured her ankle the week before Roland Garros, and recommended that Siniakova join forces with Coco Gauff instead.

Siniakova and Gauff took the title, and it felt appropriate that when Siniakova and Townsend were finally able to play a major together, they did so too. An emotional run at Wimbledon featured wins over three of the other teams in the WTA Finals field -- Kichenok/Ostapenko, Hsieh/Mertens and Dabrowski/Routliffe -- in the final three rounds. Siniakova and Townsend backed that up by making the US Open semifinals.

Season snapshot:
2024 win-loss record: 12-5
2024 titles: 1 (Wimbledon)
2024 finals: 0
Doubles rankings: No.1 (Siniakova) and No.9 (Townsend)
Previous WTA Finals appearances: 5 (Siniakova), 0 (Townsend)
Best WTA Finals result: Siniakova W (2022 with Barbora Krejcikova)