Gauff qualifies for WTA Finals after spoiler, Rybakina, Pegula, Paolini also make the cut

American Coco Gauff‘s qualification to the 2024 WTA Finals was confirmed shortly after she spoiled the development by referring to unofficial Race rankings in Wuhan. The likes of Italian Jasmine Paolini, Kazakh Elena Rybakina, and American Jessica Pegula have also reserved their places in the eight-woman Year-end Championship field.

Gauff lifted the curtains on her qualification after falling to eventual champion Aryna Sabalenka in the Wuhan Open semi-finals.

“I saw that I qualified on the ranking race,” said Gauff before the official confirmation. “Oops, they said they didn’t announce it yet. If you look it up online, there’s a checkmark by my name. They told me not to say anything. Sorry. But it’s by my name. Yeah, LiveWTARanking.com. You can look it up.

“I’m excited. I’m looking at dresses. They have a lot of things planned for us. I’m super excited. Yeah, I heard it’s going to be great. I found out maybe two days ago. I don’t remember which round, by quarters or something.”

The WTA recently confirmed the 20-year-old making the cut, along with Paolini, Rybakina, and Pegula.

Race to WTA Finals Riyadh:

1. Aryna Sabalenka – 9,091 pts (Q)
2. Iga Swiatek – 8,285 pts (Q)
3. Coco Gauff – 5,348 pts (Q)
4. Jasmine Paolini – 5,144 pts (Q)
5. Elena Rybakina – 4,971 pts (Q)
6. Jessica Pegula – 4,705 pts (Q)
7. Zheng Qinwen – 4,100 pts
8. Emma Navarro – 3,568 pts

Qualification scenario for seventh and eighth spots

The latest development leaves only two qualifying spots open for the 2024 WTA Finals scheduled for November 2-9 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Chinese Zheng Qinwen currently occupies the seventh place in the Race, followed by American Emma Navarro.

Notably, the eighth player’s fate doesn’t depend on the Race as the spot has been reserved for a Grand Slam champion in 2024 occupying any position from eighth to 20th in the WTA singles rankings.

The same parameter makes world No 13 Barbora Krejcikova, the 2024 Wimbledon champ, eligible for the upcoming tournament as the eighth contender. Krejcikova is the only woman between world No 8 and world No 20 to have won a Major title this season.

The official line-up for the season-ending competition is confirmed in the 43rd week of the year. We’re in the 42nd week of 2024 at the moment, however, according to the third-party website that Coco Gauff referred to in her statement, Zheng, the Paris Olympics gold medallist, has punched her ticket to Riyadh ahead of world No 8 Navarro.

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