LOS ANGELES, Oct. 25, 2023 – American stars Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula are returning to probably the most unique occasion in girls’s tennis, the season-ending WTA Finals, reside on Tennis Channel October 29-November 5. Held in Cancun, Mexico, this 12 months, the annual championships function the eight singles gamers and doubles groups that earned probably the most factors on the tour in 2023. The primary match takes place Sunday, Oct. 29, at 3:30 p.m. ET.
This 12 months’s US Open singles champion, Gauff is ranked No. 3 on the planet in singles and No. 4 in doubles. Pegula can also be No. 4 in doubles together with her companion Gauff, and No. 4 in singles. Each certified for the occasion for the primary time in 2022 and can play singles and pair with one another for doubles once more this 12 months.
A showcase of the 12 months’s greatest performers, the WTA Finals divides the eight singles gamers into swimming pools of 4, with each lady enjoying one match every in opposition to the opposite members of her group. On the finish of the week, each swimming pools’ top-two gamers advance to the single-elimination semifinals and last. The match makes use of the identical format for the 12 months’s eight greatest doubles groups.
The association ensures matches between the 12 months’s greatest, given its round-robin format. Any competitors can simply function combatants who squared off with each other at a significant last or semifinal earlier within the season. The occasion usually additionally contains a bigger prize than the 12 months’s All Stars chasing the WTA Finals trophy: the possibility for a year-end No. 1 rating and place within the tennis historical past books.
Tennis Channel’s unique WTA Finals protection will embrace greater than 50 reside hours and 30 hours of encore replays. Reside play on the eight-day occasion will get underway at 3:30 p.m. ET day-after-day besides Sunday, Nov. 5, when the singles and doubles finals start at 5:30 p.m. ET (full schedule under). Earlier than that, day-after-day will function 4 matches: two singles and two doubles. These will likely be held in round-robin format till Saturday, Nov. 4, which is able to function two singles and two doubles semifinals, elimination matches to find out the finalists on November 5.
The WTA Finals will likely be a part of Tennis Channel’s worldwide Heart Court docket protection, alongside reside telecasts from the lads’s Paris Masters match in France. Competitors in Cancun that doesn’t seem reside on the community will likely be reside on subscription service Tennis Channel Plus, with all WTA Finals matches obtainable on demand following their completion.
Corridor of Famer Lindsay Davenport (@LDavenport76) received the ladies’s year-end singles title in 1999 and doubles championships from 1996-1998. She returns as a Tennis Channel analyst throughout this 12 months’s occasion. She is going to work within the sales space with announcer and former participant Chanda Rubin (@ChandaRubin). Rubin reached the WTA Finals in 2003 and is the 1996 Australian Open doubles champion. Just lately retired CoCo Vandeweghe (@CocoVandey) will likely be one half of the community’s tournament-desk workforce, interviewing gamers and friends with award-winning Tennis Channel host Steve Weissman (@SteveWeissman). Throughout her enjoying days Vandeweghe was admired for her tenaciousness on the courtroom whereas sustaining candor and humor with reporters and followers.
Along with Gauff and Pegula, Individuals Desirae Krawczyk and Nicole Melichar-Martinez are on doubles groups that certified for this 12 months’s WTA Finals. Krawczyk (World No. 11) received three doubles titles in 2023 and is a former doubles finalist at Roland Garros, generally referred to as the French Open. Melichar-Martinez’s (World No. 23) resume contains greater than a dozen doubles championships, with doubles finals appearances at Wimbledon and the US Open.
Amongst this 12 months’s notable contenders exterior the US are World No. 1 singles participant Aryna Sabalenka – who battled Gauff on this 12 months’s US Open singles championship – and World No. 2 Iga Swiatek, who has received the previous two Roland Garros singles titles, two of 4 main trophies in her assortment. Fan-favorite Ons Jabeur (World No. 7) is a three-time main singles finalist and the primary Arab or African lady to achieve a Grand Slam last in tennis’ Open Period.
