The 2025 WTA Finals is around the corner. With the likes of Aryna Sabalenka and Amanda Anisimova looking to win their first title at the year-end tournament, it promises to be a cracker.
The round-robin group stages at the year-end championships in Riyadh will begin on Saturday, November 1. 2024 champion Coco Gauff is defending 1,300 WTA ranking points over the next week as her rivals like Sabalenka, Iga Świątek, and Anisimova, among other players, also look to lay their hands on the coveted trophy.
While the Steffi Graf Group features Sabalenka, Gauff, Jasmine Paolini, and Jessica Pegula, the Serena Williams group will be spearheaded by 2023 champion Świątek as she bids for a semifinal spot against the likes of Anisimova, Madison Keys, and Elena Rybakina.
An Undefeated Champion at WTA Finals 2025 Can Earn More Points Than a WTA 1000 champion Does
Each winner in the round-robin stage of the WTA Finals receives 200 ranking points. If they don’t win a match in the group stage, they don’t get any points. Keeping that in mind, 600 is the maximum amount of points that are on offer for a single player. A player can qualify for the semifinals with virtually any tally ranging between 200 to 600, though, depending on how their group rivals perform.
Finalists, meanwhile, will nab a separate 400 ranking points on top of their respective round-robin points. With the champion receiving 900 points separately according to the format, they are assured to take home somewhere between 1,100 to 1,500 points.
Only two players can qualify from a group for the semifinals at the WTA Finals. Each group winner is matched against the player who came second in the opposite group. The group standings are purely determined by the number of wins in three matches, as each player faces off against each other once.
In the case of a two-player tie, their overall head-to-head record is considered to decide which player will be ranked higher at the end of the round-robin stage. In the case of a three-player tie, the percentage of sets won by each player is taken into account.
And if the deadlock is still not broken, the percentage of games won across three matches by each player is considered. Head-to-head records may be used if two players are still tied in the above scenario.
In the knockout stages, victory in the semifinals will see a player bag 400 points and one will clinch another 500 points if they win the final. Hence, if a player goes unbeaten throughout the WTA Finals, they can bag as many as 1500 ranking points.
Other Rules at WTA Finals
Apart from the eight qualified players, there are also two alternates who will be next in line to compete if any of the initial competitors is forced to withdraw before or during the tournament. The alternates are the players who finished ninth and 10th in the race rankings for 2025.
This year, Mirra Andreeva is the first alternate and will be first in line to replace any player who cannot compete. The Russian just missed out on a spot after a visa issue prevented her to compete at the Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo, where Rybakina reached the semifinals to seal the final qualifying spot.
Ekaterina Alexandrova, who made her Top-10 debut this year, is the second alternate. The 30-year-old reached four WTA 500 finals this year, winning the Linz Open, while also making it to the semifinals of the Qatar Open.