At last, the WTA Finals Riyadh presented by PIF is here to wrap up the sensational 2024 season on the Hologic WTA Tour.

This year's top eight singles players and doubles teams will converge on the King Saud University Sports Arena to battle for the prestigious season-ending championship.

WTA Finals: Draws | Order of Play | Scores

Not only is over 15 million dollars in prize money on the line in Riyadh, but the year-end World No.1 singles ranking will be determined after the dust settles.

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

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Here are all of the fast facts and burning questions:

What are the key dates?

Play in Riyadh begins on Saturday, Nov. 2 at 3:30pm local time. Each of the first six days, through Thursday, Nov. 7, will feature two singles matches and two doubles matches in round-robin play.

The top two singles players and doubles teams from each group will advance to the knock-out semifinals on Friday, Nov. 8. In the semifinals, each group winner will face the second-place team from the other group.

Meet the top doubles teams heading to Riyadh

Everything will culminate with the finals on Saturday, Nov. 9. The doubles final will take place at 4pm local time, and the singles final will close out the WTA season, not before 7pm local time.

Riyadh is on Arabia Standard Time (GMT +3). The event is on indoor hardcourt and the Wilson US Open Regular Duty ball will be used.

What are the ranking points and prize money on offer in the singles main draw?

The singles champion at this year’s WTA Finals will earn record-setting prize money, surpassing the mark of $4.42 million previously owned by Ashleigh Barty at the 2019 WTA Finals.

The Riyadh singles champion will win no less than $4.45 million, and could take home as much as $5,155,000 if they finish the event undefeated. Here is a full breakdown of the prize money and ranking points available in Riyadh:

The year-end World No.1 ranking will also be determined in Riyadh, with Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek in contention for the season-ending top spot.

Sabalenka can secure the Year-End No.1 ranking by either:

  • Winning three round robin matches
  • Winning two round robin matches and advancing to the final
  • Winning one round robin match and advancing to the final

Swiatek must win the title to have a chance at securing the No.1 ranking, and:

  • If Swiatek loses one round robin match, then Sabalenka only needs to win two round robin matches to secure the
    Year-End No.1 ranking
  • If Swiatek loses two round robin matches, then Sabalenka only needs to win one round robin match to secure the
    Year-End No.1 ranking

Who has qualified and what are the round-robin groups?

SINGLES
Purple Group: (1) Aryna Sabalenka, (4) Jasmine Paolini, (5) Elena Rybakina, (7) Zheng Qinwen
Orange Group: (2) Iga Swiatek, (3) Coco Gauff, (6) Jessica Pegula, (8) Barbora Krejcikova

The first on-site alternate is Daria Kasatkina and the second on-site alternate is Danielle Collins.

DOUBLES
Green Group: (1) Lyudmyla Kichenok/Jelena Ostapenko, (3) Hsieh Su-wei/Elise Mertens, (6) Nicole Melichar-Martinez/Ellen Perez, (8) Katerina Siniakova/Taylor Townsend
White Group: (2) Gabriela Dabrowski/Erin Routliffe, (4) Sara Errani/Jasmine Paolini, (5) Caroline Dolehide/Desirae Krawczyk, (7) Chan Hao-ching/Veronika Kudermetova

Find more key stats and facts about the competitors and the tournament history in the preview notes here.

Who won last year?

The defending champion is Iga Swiatek, who went undefeated last year in Cancun, punctuated by a commanding 6-1, 6-0 victory over Jessica Pegula in the final. With that result, Swiatek was able to hold off Aryna Sabalenka for the year-end World No.1 ranking in 2023.

Last year's doubles champions in Cancun were Laura Siegemund and Vera Zvonareva, who are not qualified this year. They defeated Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Ellen Perez 6-4, 6-4 in last year's final; Melichar-Martinez and Perez are back and will try to go one better this year.

What are our top burning questions?

It will be a stunning field in Riyadh, with the top two-ranked players cementing their elite status in 2024.

Aryna Sabalenka won the first and last of the year’s four majors, while Iga Swiatek won her fourth title at Roland Garros in five years. Swiatek won four WTA 1000 events and Sabalenka added a career-high two to her trophy case.

Additionally, Barbora Krejcikova came out of nowhere to win Wimbledon, her second Grand Slam singles title. Coco Gauff, 20, reached two major semifinals and came away with the recent title at the China Open.

Elena Rybakina made finals in Doha and Miami, as well as the semifinals at Wimbledon, where she won two years earlier. Jessica Pegula scuffled early then reached back-to-back finals in Toronto and Cincinnati -- prevailing at the Canadian Open.

Zheng Qinwen won the gold medal in singles at the Paris Olympics at the age of 21 and cracked the Top 10 for the first time. So did Jasmine Paolini, who overcame an enormous degree of difficulty and advanced to the finals at Roland Garros and Wimbledon.

It was all thrilling while it lasted, you say, but isn’t it time to start focusing on next year? Not quite yet.

What if you could gather those eight singles players and the eight most successful doubles teams, throw them in a big bag and see who emerges from that battle royale? That’s the precise premise of the WTA Finals Riyadh presented by PIF.

Each and every one of the Grand Slam finals, including Krejcikova’s thrilling three-set Wimbledon win over Paolini, potentially could be replayed this week.

Swiatek’s epic 3-hour, 11-minute win over Sabalenka in the Madrid final? But of course. Sabalenka’s gripping three-set victory over Zheng recently in Wuhan? Same. In fact, nine of the 10 WTA 1000 champions are in the house.

Oh, and the year-end World No.1 ranking is still in play. Let’s get to some compelling questions:

Will we get a Sabalenka-Swiatek final?

It’s certainly possible. Because they’re the top two seeds, they are in different groups for round-robin play. Depending on how those first three matches play out, they could conceivably meet in the semifinals -- or the finals.

Sabalenka can clinch the No.1 ranking with a 3-0 record in group play. Even if she loses a match (or two), she would still be No.1 if she reaches the final. Swiatek, who needs to win out to have a reasonable chance, did just that a year ago in Cancun, defeating Sabalenka in a memorable semifinal.

Sabalenka and Swiatek will be the first pair to finish first or second in the WTA rankings for two straight seasons since Martina Hingis and Lindsay Davenport in 1998-2000.

What can we expect from Rybakina?

She is the X-factor here because we’ve seen so little of her lately.

When Rybakina was healthy early in the season, she was a terror, winning titles in Brisbane, Abu Dhabi and Stuttgart and reaching those two WTA 1000 finals. But since Wimbledon, the No.5 seed has played only two matches in more than four months.

Still, look at that 41-9 record -- it’s the second-best winning percentage (.820) in the field. If Rybakina’s fit, she’ll be a handful.

What are three keys for Gauff?

  1. Continue to be aggressive on the return. Gauff wins 46.3 percent of her return games, better than any other player. She converts 51.3 of her break-point opportunities, another first.
  2. On the other side, take a little off that second serve. Gauff leads all players with 407 double faults (more than six per match), which is why she’s won only 43.9 percent of her second-serve points, worst among the participants in Riyadh.
  3. Channel Beijing. Gauff won all six matches at the China Open, a run reminiscent of last year’s US Open.

Will Zheng have anything left?

While the rest of the field was resting, Zheng was busy winning the title in Tokyo, defeating Sofia Kenin in Sunday’s final.

This has been a year of breakthroughs for Zheng: She reached the Australian Open final, won Olympic gold, advanced to her second straight US Open quarterfinal and made a dazzling 12-2 run through Asia.

She’s only 22 but you have to wonder if she has the physical capacity to power through another big event.

Can Pegula take it one step further?

A year ago in Cancun, Pegula defeated four Top 10 players -- including No.1 Sabalenka -- to advance to the ultimate match at the WTA Finals. There, she lost to Swiatek, winning only a single game.

Injuries and a coaching change stalled Pegula’s season, but she found her rhythm this summer, winning 15 of 17 matches in Toronto, Cincinnati and New York. That effectively qualified her for third consecutive WTA Finals. It should be easier this year, since it’s the first year-end event she won’t also be playing doubles with Gauff.

Will Krejcikova produce another surprise?

She’s the No.8 seed here and that 16-13 (.552) win-loss record isn’t spectacular.

But Krejcikova has always been a big-match player. At Wimbledon, she threaded her way through the draw, defeating Rybakina in the semifinals and Paolini in the final. Both matches required a third set.

In a season truncated by injury, Krejcikova retired from her last match with an ailing back -- against Mirra Andreeva -- in the quarterfinals at the Ningbo Open.

Can Paolini handle the workload?

Paolini's doubles partner Sara Errani qualified in both singles and doubles at the WTA Finals in 2012-13 and said recently it was a lot to undertake. Paolini, the only player in Riyadh to do it, has already played 95 matches this year.

Paolini and Errani -- the Olympic gold medalists -- will be the No.4 seeds, behind No.1 Jelena Ostapenko and Lyudmyla Kichenok, No.2 Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe and No.3 Hsieh Su-Wei and Elise Mertens.

Ostapenko has previously qualified for the year-end tournament in both singles and doubles. This is the sixth time Mertens has done it in doubles.