The climactic event of this season’s WTA Tour, the WTA Finals, was originally due to take place in Riyadh. However, given the withdrawal of Saudi funding and the ongoing conflict in nearby Iran, it was decided that it should relocate to California.
Having been staged in six different locations over the past seven years, the WTA Finals is looking for a more permanent residence. That should come in the shape of the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, which has been ringfenced to host the next three editions of the tournament following this year’s meeting at Indian Wells Tennis Garden.
There is plenty of intrigue surrounding the singles and doubles brackets, with a close fight for the title expected in both.
Elena Rybakina hopes to defend her crown after defeating pre-tournament favourite Aryna Sabalenka in last year’s final. Both players had navigated their way to the showpiece without being beaten, while 2024 champion Coco Gauff was eliminated at the initial round-robin stage.
The Kazakh’s maiden WTA Finals triumph landed her an eye-watering $5.235m (£3.91m) pay cheque, the largest sum ever received by a tennis player at the time. This figure was eclipsed by the $5.5m handed out to this year’s U.S. Open singles champions, a prize also claimed by the in-form Rybakina.
Meanwhile, Elise Mertens is looking for a third doubles title following her latest success in 2025, when she swept aside the field with former teammate Veronika Kudermetova. The Russian is still recovering from the surgery she underwent at the turn of the year, leaving Mertens to join forces with two-time Australian Open winner Zhang Shuai.
Every minute of this week’s WTA Finals will be televised live on Sky Sports, the main broadcaster of tennis in the United Kingdom.
WTA Finals 2026: Key information
Dates: Sunday, November 8th - Sunday, November 15th
Venue: Indian Wells Tennis Garden, Indian Wells (California)
2025 winner(s): Singles: Elena Rybakina (Kazakhstan)
Doubles: Veronika Kudermetova and Elise Mertens (Belgium)
TV channels/live stream: Sky Sports Tennis, Sky Sports Main Event, Sky Go
Qualification
The WTA Finals serves as the end-of-year championships for elite women’s tennis, so the qualification process for this tournament commences at the beginning of every season.
The WTA points rankings table helps to determine who qualifies for the WTA Finals. Players are able to earn points at every competition on the WTA Tour, although only a certain amount counts towards their official ranking (more on this to follow). The volume of points a player receives is index-linked to their performance; the further they advance in the tournament, the greater the reward.
However, points allocations differ throughout the tour. The more prestigious the tournament, the higher the number of points available. For example, a player accrues a colossal 2000 points for winning Wimbledon, but being crowned Stuttgart Open champion only provides a quarter of that amount.
The qualification criteria for the WTA Finals Singles and Doubles events follow the same general guidelines, but there are some notable differences between the two. We’ve provided a breakdown of both below:
Singles
Players occupying the top seven positions in the WTA points ranking automatically qualify for the WTA Finals. The eighth spot is ringfenced for the season’s highest-ranked Grand Slam winner who is placed between 8th and 20th on the leaderboard. Should one of the top seven-ranked players not be able to attend the championships for any given reason, the second-highest-ranked Grand Slam winner (again positioned between 8th and 20th) replaces them in the line-up. If all four Grand Slam tournaments were won by players in the top seven, the final berth defaults to the eighth-ranked competitor.
As alluded to previously, not all of the points a player earns contribute towards their WTA ranking. A player’s overall score is worked out by adding together their points tallies from a select group of 18 tournaments. Provided they have enough points, a player can compete in as few as eight WTA Tour events and still be eligible to qualify for the WTA Finals. However, participating in at least 18 tournaments will clearly elevate their chances of qualification.
Each player’s points are calculated by taking the following performances into account:
- The four Grand Slams - Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon, and the U.S. Open
- Six best results from any of the seven combined* WTA 1000s - Indian Wells, Miami Open, Madrid Open, Italian Open, Canadian Open, Cincinnati Open, and China Open.
- Single best result from any of the three ‘non-combined’ WTA 1000s - Qatar Open, Dubai Tennis Championships, and Wuhan Open
- Seven best results from any other mandatory tournament on the WTA Tour (excluding ITF and WTA 125 tournaments)
*combined = ATP (men’s) event is simultaneously staged at the same venue.
Doubles
As per the singles event, the seven teams that have accumulated the most points on the WTA circuit are guaranteed to progress to the year-end championships, with the last qualification place also going to either a lower-ranked Grand Slam winner(s) or the eighth-best performing team.
The doubles classification ranks each player individually, as teams regularly change during the season. However, the doubles line-up for the WTA Finals is determined by how many points each team has earned throughout the campaign, not simply by pairing the 16 highest-ranked competitors with one another.
The qualification criteria for the doubles event are less complex. Rather than combining a specific set of results, doubles teams are simply measured by their 12 best performances/points tallies across the entire WTA Tour campaign. Therefore, points earned at any tournament could theoretically be used to determine their ranking.
Alternates
Both singles and doubles events use ‘alternates’ as a way of maintaining a full complement of participants in the event of a withdrawal. There are two alternate players/teams in the singles/doubles brackets.
If a player/team withdraws from the WTA Finals due to injury or illness, the highest-ranked of the two alternates will take their place. Should another player/team also suffer the same fate, the second alternate steps in.
Format
The format for the singles and doubles follows the exact same template, with eight players/teams competing in each bracket.
The players/teams are split into two groups of four, which are determined using a seeded draw. Each player receives a seeding in accordance with their position in the WTA ranking, so first place assumes the number one seed.
All competitors play every opponent in their group in a round-robin format. The two players with the highest number of wins in each group then advance to the semi-finals, before the victors of these two matches face one another in the showpiece.
Who is competing in this year’s WTA Finals?
Here’s the confirmed list of participants for the 2026 WTA Finals:
Singles (WTA points tally and date of qualification in brackets)
Elena Rybakina (8,099 points, 14th September)
Aryna Sabalenka (6,485 points, 29th September)
Mirra Andreeva (6,306 points, 9th October)
Linda Noskova (4,343 points, 9th October)
Jessica Pegula (5,760 points, 14th October)
Coco Gauff (5,763 points, 14th October)
Elina Svitolina (5,121 points, 17th October)
Karolina Muchova (4,665 points, 21st October)
Alternates: Marta Kostyuk and Diana Shnaider
Iga Swiatek qualified for the tournament after securing ninth place in the WTA rankings, but later withdrew due to injury. The Polish star is suffering from a persistent thigh issue, which has contributed to her enduring an underwhelming 2026 campaign.
Doubles (combined WTA points tally and date of qualification in brackets)
Katerina Siniakova/Taylor Townsend (19,670 points, 24th August)
Gabriela Dabrowski/Luisa Stefani (16,990 points, 3rd September)
Guo Hanyu/Kristina Mladenovic (8,661 points, 19th October)
Cristina Bucsa/Nicole Melichar-Martinez (9,185 points, 19th October)
Elise Mertens/Zhang Shuai (10,978 points, 19th October)
Hsieh Su-wei/Jeļena Ostapenko (7,925 points, 21st October)
Demi Schuurs/Ellen Perez (6,390 points, 21st October)
Sara Errani/Jasmine Paolini (6,397 points, 31st October)
N.B. Aleksandra Krunic and Anna Danilina qualified for the WTA Finals in early September, but subsequently withdrew. Krunic sustained an anterior cruciate ligament injury during the second round of the U.S. Open, while the Russian and her partner Danilina were leading Tatjana Maria and Zeynep Sonmez by one set to love.
Alternates: Tereza Mihalikova/Olivia Nicholls and Erin Routliffe/Aldila Sutjiadi
The following groups were confirmed during last Tuesday’s draw (seeding in brackets):
Singles – Group 1: Elena Rybakina (1), Coco Gauff (4), Jessica Pegula (5), Linda Noskova (8)
Singles – Group 2: Aryna Sabalenka (2), Mirra Andreeva (3), Elina Svitolina (6), Karolina Muchova (7)
Doubles – Group 1: Gabriela Dabrowski/Luisa Stefani (2), Guo Hanyu/Kristina Mladenovic (3), Hsieh Su-wei/Jeļena
Ostapenko (5), Elise Mertens/Zhang Shuai (7)
Doubles – Group 2: Katerina Siniakova/Taylor Townsend (1), Cristina Bucsa/Nicole Melichar-Martinez (4), Demi Schuurs/Ellen Perez (6), Sara Errani/Jasmine Paolini (8)
Where to watch on TV or live stream
Back in 2023, Sky Sports struck an exclusive five-year deal with the WTA and ATP, enabling them to screen the vast majority of tournaments on either tour. The satellite giant provides comprehensive coverage of almost every WTA/ATP 1000, 500, and 250 event, while also holding exclusive UK rights to the U.S. Open.
Consequently, both the WTA Finals and the upcoming ATP Finals are being shown live on Sky Sports.
Subscribers can follow all of the action from Indian Wells on Sky Sports Tennis, with selected sessions also available via Sky Sports Main Event. Jonathan Overend will be positioned in the commentary box, alongside 59-time Grand Slam winner Martina Navratilova, 2013 Wimbledon champion Marion Bartoli, and former British number one Laura Robson. It was recently announced that this familiar punditry team will be joined by Australian ace Madison Keys, who has competed in the WTA Finals on two separate occasions.