Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek, the two of the top players in the women’s singles, are looking to end the 2024 season with the world number one ranking with a title triumph at the WTA Finals 2024 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Prior to the start of the prestigious year-end tournament, Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka has been ranked world number one with 9,016 points, ahead of Iga Swiatek by a significant margin of 1,046 points after the latter didn’t play on tour since the US Open in September.
In her return tournament on tour under new coach Wim Fissette, the Polish tennis player, Iga Swiatek will be needing to defend her WTA Finals title, while hoping that the results don’t go the way of Aryna Sabalenka, to end the year as the world number one. Meanwhile, if the Belarusian manages to beat three of her opponents in the group stage or reach the final, to hold on to the top spot in the rankings at the end of the season.
Iga Swiatek has 8-4 head-to-head record over Aryna Sabalenka in professional tennis
It’s because there are a whopping 1,500 points on the line for the winner of the WTA Finals 2024 with eight players in action including Aryna Sabalenka, Iga Swiatek, Zheng Qinwen, Jasmine Paolini, Jessica Pegula, Coco Gauff, Elena Rybakina, and Barbora Krejcikova this week in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. If Sabalenka reaches the final of the tournament, it will be her 13th competitive meeting against Swiatek with the head-to-head record standing at 4-8 in the favour of her opponent.
When asked about keeping her world number one ranking ahead of the WTA Finals 2024, Aryna Sabalenka was quoted as saying, as per Times of India, “Yeah, that’s definitely one of the goals I’ve always been saying that for me it’s about finishing the year as the world number one. I’ll do everything I can to finish the year as world number one.” Apart from that, the 26-year-old also remarked, “Anytime we come to the tournament, we want to win. That’s the first goal.”
Meanwhile, Iga Swiatek also gave her take on the world number one ranking and Aryna Sabalenka prior to the tournament, and said, “Obviously we’re both fighting for this spot. It’s been us basically, over the past few years I’m in the tournament. I want to play my best and win. I’m going to focus on my first match and do everything step by step. She’s a great player. She also deserves to be number one. For sure, I’m going to fight for me to be in that place.”
As of this writing, Iga Swiatek is a set down against Barbora Krejcikova of Czechia in her first match of the WTA Finals 2024 after Aryna Sabalenka registered the opening straight sets win of the tournament versus Qinwen Zheng of China.