CANCUN, Mexico – The draw has been made for the GNP Seguros WTA Finals Cancun, the season-ending championships of the Hologic WTA Tour.
The two top seeds, Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek, lead the Bacalar and Chetumal groups, respectively.
This is what the remaining groups said:
Bacalar group
1. Aryna Sabalenka
4. Elena Rybakina
5. Jessica Pegula
8. Maria Sakkari
Chetumal group
2. Iga Swiatek
3. Coco Gauff
6. Ons Jabeur
7. Marketa Vondrousova
The Bacalar group will see two of the season’s crucial finals replayed, with Sabalenka and Rybakina drawing. The two played each other three times this season, with Sabalenka winning the Australian Open final, Rybakina winning the Indian Wells final and the Beijing quarterfinals. The well-known opponents Pegula and Sakkari, who have already faced each other nine times, will also compete against each other.
“With Aryna and Elena, of course, they are girls with power plays and big servers, so it will be difficult,” Pegula said. “But I’m happy with my group. Aside from Maria, I haven’t actually played Aryna or Elena that much, so it will be interesting.”
The Chetumal group includes three of the biggest winners of the season: French Open winner Swiatek, US Open winner Gauff and Wimbledon winner Vondrousova. Swiatek and Gauff will meet for the tenth time in their careers. The group will also see a rematch of the Wimbledon final, where Jabeur will face Vondrousova.
“You won’t get any easy games at the WTA Finals,” Swiatek said. “Of course I played against Coco and Marketa in Beijing and at the US Open, so Ons is the only player I haven’t played against recently. I just need to focus on myself and get used to the conditions here and everything should be fine.”
The top two finishers in each group advance to the semi-finals. The first place in each group meets the second place in the other group. The semi-finals and finals will be played in the standard knockout format.
In doubles, top seeds Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula lead the Mahahual group, while Storm Hunter and Elise Mertens lead the Maya Ka’an group.
Mahahual Group
1. Coco Gauff & Jessica Pegula
4. Barbora Krejcikova & Katerina Siniakova
6. Vera Zvonareva & Laura Siegemund
7. Gabriela Dabrowski & Erin Routliffe
Maya Ka’an Group
2. Storm Hunter & Elise Mertens
3. Shuko Aoyama & Ena Shibahara
5. Demi Schuurs & Desirae Krawczyk
8. Nicole Melichar-Martinez & Ellen Perez
Round-robin play begins on Sunday, October 29th.