Sabalenka and Swiatek play for number one in Riyadh
Individual table WTA Final kicks off this Saturday (no earlier than 16:00, TDP and DAZN) in Riyadh (Saudi Arabia) with a Purple Group fight between Arina Sabalenko and Qingwen Zhengre-release of the last Australian Open final. The Belarusian, a big favorite, will try to defend the number one that was taken from her just a few years ago. Iga Swiatekreigning champion of the tournament, which unites the eight best players of the year and leader of the Orange Group. The Polish woman can take it away if she repeats her success.
Sabalenka and Swiatek have dominated the circuit in recent years. They faced each other 12 times, with the score 8-4 in favor of Iga, in the final 4-1. They met three times that year, and the Warsaw man, who had not competed since the US Open, won title bouts in Madrid and Rome in early September and lost in the semifinals in Cincinnati. Arina will retain the throne if she wins all three matches in the group stage, as well as if she wins two or at least one but reaches the final.
Jasmine Paolini will meet Elena Rybakina, who has hired Goran Ivanisevic, former Novak Djokovic, as her coach at the King Saud University Sports Arena around 6 p.m. Swiatek will play tomorrow against Barbora Krejcikova and Coco Gauff, against Jessica Pegula.in the American fight on the second day of the event, which offers prizes worth more than 14 million euros and The first-time director is the Spanish Garbiñe Muguruza, winner of the 2021 competition.
The top two from each group will meet (leader one versus second) in the semi-finals on Friday the 8th, the winners of which will compete for the title in the final on Saturday the 9th. A hypothetical undefeated champion could earn 1,500 ranking points (200 for winning the group stage, 400 for winning the semi-finals and 500 for also winning the final).
Kichenok and Ostapenko are favorites in doubles
Ukraine’s Lyudmila Kichenok and Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko, the number one pair, are big favorites to win the doubles masters title. They are in the green group with Se-Mertens, Melijar Martinez-Perez (they will meet this Saturday from 13:30) and Sinyakova-Townsend, Kichenko and Ostapenko’s opponents at the end of the first day. In Blanco, which makes its debut on Sunday, Dabrowski-Routliffe, Errani-Paolini, Dolehyde-Krawczyk and Chan-Kudermetova are competing.
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