The WTA Finals is a professional women's championship tennis tournament which is held by the Women's Tennis Association. This year will be the 52nd edition of the singles competition and the 47th edition of the doubles competition. In 2023, the Finals found its venue in Cancun, Mexico from October 29 to November 5. It will be the first time a WTA tournament will be held in Cancun.

The tournament is played on an indoor hard court, featuring the top eight singles players and doubles teams from the 2023 WTA Tour. The championship was originally held in October 1972 at Boca Raton, Florida (USA) as a climax event at the end of the Virginia Slims Circuit, a series of events sponsored by Virginia Slims. It was first held in October from 1972 to 1974, then in March from 1975 to 1986.

The WTA then switched to a January-November playing season. The event was consequently moved to the end of each year. The WTA Finals has the highest prize money and ranking points aside from the slams. In the current structure of the Finals, the winner can earn up to 1,500 ranking points. If they win the event as an unbeaten champion in the round-robin round, their point tally will give them a significant boost.

How do players qualify for the WTA Finals?

There are over 53 WTA tournaments and the Grand Slams during the year which help players qualify for the WTA Finals. The top 7 singles players (usually the top 8) and top 8 doubles teams on the leaderboard at the end of the year, as of the Monday following the final regular season tournament, have the chance to compete in the WTA Finals. The eighth seed in singles is not guaranteed a spot in the finals because the WTA has some wiggle room under its rules.

Points tally in the singles division are derived by combining totals from 16 tournaments (except ITF and WTA 125 tournaments). The Grand Slams, the four WTA 1000 tournaments with 1,000 points, and (for players who played the main draw of at least two such tournaments) the best results from two WTA 1000 tournaments that award 900 points are mandatory to be included in the singles selection.

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Doubles selection is much less stringent. Total points are calculated by any combination of eleven tournaments throughout the year. The obligation of playing in Grand Slams or Premier-level tournaments that applies to singles is not followed for the doubles finals.

WTA Finals prize money

Distribution

Prize Pool

The WTA Finals prize money in 2023 has a pool of $9,000,000. It has increased massively from the prize pool of $5,000,000 from 2022. The approximately 45% jump will enable players to take home handsome sums.  

WTA points distribution

The points in the WTA Finals are distributed in a similar manner to the prize money. The champion is awarded 750 points, with the runner-up taking 330 points. Each round-robin win clinches 250 points and, for a loss, it is 125 points. The semi-finalists will only earn the points they earn through each win in the round robins. The format is the same for both doubles and singles.

WTA Finals format

The final of the championships was a best-of-five-sets contest from 1984 to 1998. That makes it the only tournament on the women's circuit to have a best-of-five match at any stage of the competition. In 1999, the WTA Finals was changed to a best-of-three-sets format. From 1974 to 1982, the doubles draw consisted of four teams; from 1983 to 2002, the draw was extended to eight teams; it was reduced back to four teams until 2013, and it has been made up of eight teams since 2014.

Qualified players and teams compete in two groups of four in a round-robin style. Players in one group will face each other once. Each group's winners and runners-up proceed to the semifinals. The semifinal winners, as usual, will advance to the finals, where they compete to become the ultimate winner of the WTA Finals.

WTA Finals winners list: The past 15 years

Singles

Doubles

Which tennis pro won the most WTA Finals over the years?

Singles

Serena Williams has won the most number of WTA Finals since 2000, clinching a total of five wins over a storied career.

Doubles

Since 2000, Lisa Raymond has won the doubles version of the tournament till 2023, with four WTA Finals to her name. 

Where is the WTA Finals held?

The Finals of the Women's Tennis Association move each year. Since its conception, New York City has held the event the most number of times. They first provided their city for the Finals in 1977 and then for 21 consecutive years, from 1979 to 2001. The WTA Finals in 2023 will be held in Cancun, Mexico. It is the first tournament not at the ITF level to be held in the city, which is bound to evoke enthusiasm from its citizens. It has moved from the 2022 WTA Finals in Fort Worth.

Which players will partake in the 2023 WTA Finals?

As usual, the tour's eight best players will participate in the WTA Finals. This year, we will see Aryna Sabalenka, Iga Świątek, Coco Gauff, Elena Rybakina, Jessica Pegula, Markéta Vondroušová, Ons Jabeur and Karolina Muchova will fight to win the glorious championship.

In doubles, we will see the pairs Coco Gauff, Jessica Pegula; Storm Hunter, Elise Mertens; Barbora Krejčíková, Kateřina Siniaková; Shuko Aoyama, Ena Shibahara; and Desirae Krawczyk, Demi Schuurs competing to be crowned the best duo in the year,

How to watch the WTA Finals 2023?

Tennis fans can stream the WTA Finals 2023 through various means. Tennis Channel will take up the task of the WTA Finals 2023 live streaming in the USA and its territories. Along with them, the Tennis Channel will also broadcast it in Austria, Germany, Netherlands, Puerto Rico, and Switzerland. Central & South American fans can watch it on ESPN. Some countries in the Balkans can watch the finals on IKO SportKlub. 

Those in Central Asia will have to tune in to Setanta Sports. British and Irish fans can watch the tournament through Prime Video. Australia, France and French Territories, Turkey, and Monaco can tune into beIN Sports to be up to date with the championship.

The WTA Finals will wrap up the season and conclude the tournament's action. With the best players competing for the glory, one would not want to miss it. 

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