WTA Tour Finals draw, schedule and results: Coco Gauff bids to defend title in Riyadh
The 2025 WTA Tour Finals begins November 1 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, with the top eight singles players and doubles pairs in the world battling for supremacy.
Four different players won Grand Slam singles titles this year, with Madison Keys taking the Australian Open, Coco Gauff the French Open, Iga Świątek Wimbledon and Aryna Sabalenka the U.S. Open. Sabalenka, the world No. 1, and Świątek, the world No. 2, were kept apart in the group-stage draw, with the other six players sorted into pots of two.
The four Grand Slam champions are joined by Amanda Anisimova, who this year reached two Grand Slam finals; Jessica Pegula; Jasmine Paolini and Elena Rybakina. In a thrilling conclusion to the regular season, Rybakina overtook Mirra Andreeva at the last to clinch the eighth spot, with Andreeva and fellow Russian Ekaterina Alexandrova serving as alternates in case a player withdraws with injury. Keys, who has been rehabilitating an unspecified one, has not played since the U.S. Open.
Here’s how the groups shook out:
| Steffi Graf Group | Serena Williams Group |
|---|---|
|
Aryna Sabalenka
|
Iga Świątek
|
|
Coco Gauff
|
Amanda Anisimova
|
|
Jessica Pegula
|
Elena Rybakina
|
|
Jasmine Paolini
|
Madison Keys
|
The first round of matches on November 1 pits Świątek against Keys and Anisimova against Rybakina, while Sabalenka faces Paolini and Gauff faces Pegula on November 2.
Świątek and Keys’ rematch of their thrilling Australian Open semifinal will open the singles event at 11 a.m. ET, with Anisimova’s match against Rybakina following. From November 2 onwards, the first round-robin singles match of each day will start at 10 a.m. ET, with the second following.
| Aryna Sabalenka | Iga Swiatek | Coco Gauff | Amanda Anisimova | Jessica Pegula | Elena Rybakina | Madison Keys | Jasmine Paolini | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Aryna Sabalenka
|
|
5-8
|
5-6
|
4-6
|
8-3
|
8-5
|
5-2
|
5-2
|
|
Iga Świątek
|
8-5
|
|
11-4
|
1-1
|
6-5
|
6-4
|
5-2
|
6-1
|
|
Coco Gauff
|
6-5
|
4-11
|
|
1-2
|
3-4
|
1-0
|
3-3
|
3-3
|
|
Amanda Anisimova
|
6-4
|
1-1
|
2-1
|
|
0-3
|
0-0
|
0-0
|
2-0
|
|
Jessica Pegula
|
3-8
|
5-6
|
4-3
|
3-0
|
|
3-2
|
1-2
|
5-1
|
|
Elena Rybakina
|
5-8
|
4-6
|
0-1
|
0-0
|
2-3
|
|
3-3
|
3-3
|
|
Madison Keys
|
2-5
|
2-5
|
3-3
|
0-0
|
2-1
|
3-3
|
|
1-1
|
|
Jasmine Paolini
|
2-5
|
1-6
|
3-3
|
0-2
|
1-5
|
3-3
|
1-1
|
|
How does the WTA Tour Finals draw work?
The eight players who qualified were split into four pots for the draw. Pot 1 is No. 1 and No. 2, Pot 2 is No. 3 and No. 4, and so on.
These seedings follow the players’ rankings in the WTA Race, the table which only counts ranking points earned in 2024.
Each player then plays three round-robin matches. The top two players from each group contest the semifinals, with the winners meeting in the final.
Who won last year’s tournament?
Coco Gauff won the 2024 WTA Tour Finals, also in Riyadh, beating Zheng Qinwen 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(2). The current world No. 3 won four of her five matches last year, becoming the youngest champion since Maria Sharapova in 2004.
What is the prize money for the WTA Tour Finals?
The total prize money is $ 15.5 million (£11.77m). Prize money is allocated per match win, and is structured so that the singles champion will take home $ 5,235,000 if they go through the event undefeated with five wins (three round-robin wins, a semifinal win, and then victory in the final).
The winner of the final will receive $ 2.5 million, while the winner of each semifinal will receive $ 1.29 million; the prize for a round-robin match win is $ 355,000 and each player receives $ 340,000 just for appearing at the event.
The prize for the winner is larger than any of the four Grand Slams, the largest of which is the U.S. Open at $ 5 million.
Why is the event in Saudi Arabia?
Saudi Arabia’s Ministry of Sport and the Saudi Tennis Federation (STF) completed a three-year deal for the WTA Tour Finals in April last year. Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) already sponsors the ATP and WTA world rankings, and this deal was the biggest element of the kingdom’s push into tennis before it announced an ATP Masters 1000 tournament that will start as early as 2028.
A deal for the WTA Tour Finals was close in the summer of 2023, but the WTA backed down after prominent criticism of Saudi Arabia’s human rights record and treatment of women from prominent former players including Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova. That left the WTA scrambling for a host city, eventually alighting on Cancun just two months before the event. This produced a tournament beset by bad weather and poor organization, played in front of a temporary 4,000-seat stadium on a court that players described as uneven and unpredictable. A longer term deal has the promise of stability for an event that has floundered since 2020, but has not stopped criticism of a country which criminalizes homosexuality and does not give women equal rights to men.
Former WTA chair Steve Simon last year told The Athletic that Saudi organizers are as “committed as we are to build and have good attendance for the event.”
During last year’s event in Riyadh, Simon’s replacement as chief executive Portia Archer said that the WTA Tour respects the values of the countries in which it hosts tournaments, saying she “misspoke” after initially stating that host countries need not necessarily have values that align with those of the WTA Tour.
With the contraction of the kingdom’s wider ambitions in tennis — its proposal for a combined ATP / WTA 1000 tournament and $ 1 billion of investment last year set the sport aflame — discussions over the renewal of its hosting the WTA Tour Finals will follow this year’s edition.
This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Tennis, Women's Tennis
2025 The Athletic Media Company
