WTA Finals 2021 Slashes Prize Money Pool by $9M

The WTA Finals 2021 will soon commence with 8 of the best performers on the WTA Tour in 2021. It will be taking place in Guadalajara, Mexico, at the Panamerican Tennis Center. The tournament got canceled in 2020 due to the pandemic. As a consequence, the prize money for 2021 has been decreased substantially.

After the 2019 Finals champion, Ashleigh Barty’s withdrawal, the tournament will witness a different champion. Aryna Sabalenka, Karolina Pliskova, Iga Swiatek, Barbora Krejcikova, Garbine Muguruza, Maria Sakkari, Paula Badosa and Anett Kontaveit will be competing this year. This also means a continuation of the trend of every tournament since 2015, witnessing a different champion.

WTA Finals 2021 prize money

The WTA Finals is an annual year-end tournament played amongst the best eight female tennis players of the year. This year, the competition will be taking place from 10th November to 17th November 2021. This year the event will be taking place on the hard indoor courts in Guadalajara, Mexico. This is the first time Mexico is hosting the WTA Finals event.

Ons Jabeur missed out on the final spot at the Finals to Anett Kontaveit in a nail-biting finish which went right down to the wire. She was scheduled to serve as the alternate for the 2021 event but recently withdrew to prioritize her recovery.

The prize money for this year’s WTA Finals has been declared as $ 5,000,000. The huge amount will be divided between the eight players according to their performances. This will be the 50th edition of the competition for the singles event and 45th edition for the doubles event.

Decrease in the prize money

The last edition of the WTA Finals took place in the year 2019. As a matter of fact, the prize money has decreased drastically. For the WTA Finals 2019, the prize money was $ 14,000,000 compared to this year’s, which is $ 5,000,000. Reports say the gradual drop in the prize money is due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the change in venue. Throughout 2021, there have been lower tournament prizes, also due to the lack of ticket sales.

Ashleigh Barty defeated Elina Svitolina in straight sets in the finals of WTA Finals 2019. Barty took home a recording-breaking amount of $4.75 million. On the other hand, Timea Babos /Kristina Mladenovic beat Hsieh Su-wei /Barbora Strycova to lift the title in China.

This year too the same Round robin tie-breaking methods will be implemented for the tournament. As a result, there are no changes in the rules and format of the tournament.

What do you think, who will lift the WTA Finals title this year in Mexico?

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