WTA Race to the Finals, Riyadh 2026 Qualification Guide

The WTA Race to the Finals is the season-long leaderboard that decides who plays the WTA Finals. Eight singles players. Eight doubles teams. One week of round-robin tennis followed by knockout. Since 2024 the event has been held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia under a three-year deal with the Saudi Tennis Federation that runs through 2026. This guide walks through every qualification rule, the Riyadh context, the tournament format, the prize money tier, and the verified champions of the recent editions.

What the Race actually is

The Race to the Finals is a calendar-year points table that starts at zero every January and closes on the Monday after the final regular-season WTA tournament. It counts only points earned in the current year at WTA 250, WTA 500, WTA 1000 and Grand Slam events. Points from one year do not carry to the next. The rolling 52-week official ranking runs in parallel but serves a different purpose, seedings and year-end number one. For the full mechanics of the rolling ranking, see the how ATP rankings work guide.

Race versus WTA ranking

Source: WTA Rankings Explained and WTA 2025 Rulebook. The Race is the entry table for Riyadh. The ranking decides everything else.

Top 8 singles qualification, the full rules

1. Top 7 on the Race qualify directly. At the cut-off Monday after the last regular-season tournament, the seven highest-placed players on the Race are automatic entrants.
2. Grand Slam champion exception for spot 8. If a current-year Grand Slam singles champion sits between 8 and 20 on the Race, she takes the eighth slot. If no player in that range is a Slam champion, the player at number 8 on the Race qualifies.
3. Minimum events rule. To be eligible a player must have competed in at least eight WTA 1000 or WTA 500 tournaments during the season, with an exception under the Long-Term Injury rule.
4. Reserves. Alternates travel to the host city and step in for any qualifier who withdraws. The 2025 Riyadh edition carried Mirra Andreeva and Ekaterina Alexandrova as the two on-site singles alternates.

Point totals for singles accumulate across up to 18 tournaments per the WTA 2025 Rulebook: the four Grand Slams, the best six of seven combined WTA 1000 events, the best result from the three non-combined WTA 1000 events, and the next best seven results from all other non-125 WTA tournaments.

Top 8 doubles qualification

The WTA doubles Race tracks team standings over a combination of up to 12 tournaments during the season. Unlike singles, the doubles point total does not need to include Grand Slams or WTA 1000 events. The top seven teams qualify directly and the eighth slot goes to the highest-ranking Grand Slam winning team between 8 and 20 on the Race, otherwise to the eighth team on the standings.

Partnerships often form or dissolve late in the season, so the doubles Race can shuffle heavily in the two weeks before the cut-off Monday.

Format of the WTA Finals

Eight singles players split into two round-robin groups of four. Each player plays the other three in her group. All matches are best-of-three sets with a final-set tiebreak. The top two of each group advance to the semifinals, with the Group A winner facing the Group B runner-up and vice versa. Winners meet in the final. The doubles event runs on the same format for eight teams.

Ranking points per match at the WTA Finals:

• 200 points per round-robin win.
• 400 points for a semifinal win.
• 500 points for the final win.
• An undefeated champion earns 1,500 ranking points total.

Full tour-wide points by round are in our ATP and WTA points per round reference.

Riyadh 2026, venue and context

The WTA Finals are held at King Saud University Indoor Arena, a purpose-built indoor hard-court venue in Riyadh used since 2024. Per Arab News and WTA reporting, the center court measures 44 by 21 meters and was built for the year-end tournament as part of the three-year agreement with the Saudi Tennis Federation.

The Riyadh move drew public debate in 2023. Martina Navratilova and Chris Evert co-authored an opinion piece in The Washington Post opposing the hosting choice, citing concerns over human rights and LGBTQ protections. Ons Jabeur publicly supported the move, pointing to rising prize money and growing participation of Saudi women in tennis. Iga Swiatek, then world number one, voiced frustration with the WTA decision delay without taking a side on the Saudi question. The WTA argued the partnership delivered record prize money and infrastructure guarantees.

Prize money, the Rybakina record

The WTA Finals carries one of the richest purses in women's sport. Per Sportico and WTA reports, the 2024 edition in Riyadh distributed 15.25 million USD total, a 6.25 million increase over the 2023 edition in Cancun. The 2025 edition raised the pool to 15.5 million USD, with 12.4 million for singles and 3.1 million for doubles per WTA prize-money breakdown.

In 2025 Elena Rybakina earned 5.235 million USD for going undefeated at the title. Per Guinness World Records and WTA coverage, that figure is the largest single-event payout in women's sports history. The runner-up Aryna Sabalenka earned 2.6 million USD. For context, the 2024 champion Coco Gauff earned 4.805 million USD, which was the record at the time, surpassing Ashleigh Barty's 4.42 million from the 2019 Shenzhen edition.

Recent finals, verified record

Per WTA match reports and Wikipedia WTA Finals singles pages, the last several editions had these results:

Per WTA recap, Rybakina went 5-0 in Riyadh 2025 and became the first Kazakhstani player to win the year-end championship. Gauff's 2024 title came via a 3-hour 4-minute final against Zheng Qinwen after going 2-1 in group play, per the WTA match report. Swiatek's 6-1, 6-0 final over Pegula in 2023 Cancun was the most lopsided WTA Finals final in the event's 51-year history at the time, per WTA reporting, and the undefeated run regained her year-end number one from Sabalenka.

Historic title leaders

Per Guinness World Records and Tennis365 stats, Martina Navratilova holds the WTA Finals singles title record with 8 championships. Steffi Graf and Serena Williams follow with 5 titles each. Navratilova's streak of 5 consecutive titles in the mid-1980s is the longest unbroken run in the event.

Doubles finals, 2024 and 2025

Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe won the 2024 Riyadh doubles title, defeating Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend 7-5, 6-3. Dabrowski became the first Canadian and Routliffe the first New Zealander to win a WTA Finals title, per CBC Sports and Wikipedia 2024 WTA Finals Doubles entry.

In 2025 Veronika Kudermetova and Elise Mertens took the doubles title, defeating Timea Babos and Luisa Stefani 7-6(4), 6-1. Per Olympics.com, it was the second WTA Finals doubles title for both Kudermetova and Mertens.

Key dates, 2026 edition

• Race reset: start of the 2026 WTA season in early January 2026.
• Cut-off: the Monday after the final regular-season WTA tournament.
• WTA Finals 2026: November 2026, King Saud University Indoor Arena, Riyadh. Source: WTA Finals Riyadh 2026 official page and Wikipedia 2026 WTA Finals entry.

Differences from the ATP Race

• Host city. ATP Finals run in Italy through 2030 with the specific host city under evaluation beyond 2026. WTA Finals run in Riyadh through 2026, with the next cycle to be announced by the end of the 2026 French Open.
• Minimum events rule. WTA requires at least 8 WTA 1000 or WTA 500 events played during the season. ATP has its own commitment framework.
• Grand Slam champion rule. Present on both tours for the eighth slot, with the 8 to 20 Race cap.
• Format. Both tours use two round-robin groups of four, semifinals, final. Same structure for singles and doubles.

The parallel ATP event is covered in the ATP Race to Turin guide.

Frequently asked questions

Does the WTA reward year-end number one separately?

Year-end number one is the player at position 1 of the WTA official ranking on the Monday after the WTA Finals. The Race does not decide it. In seasons when the Finals champion is outside the top 2 of the ranking, the two lists can look very different on final Monday.

Where was the WTA Finals held before Riyadh?

Per the WTA Finals Wikipedia page, recent host cities were Shenzhen in 2019, Guadalajara in 2021, Fort Worth in 2022 and Cancun in 2023. Singapore hosted from 2014 to 2018. The 2020 edition was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Riyadh has hosted since 2024.

Are Race points awarded for WTA 125 or ITF events?

Points from WTA 125 and ITF events do not count for the Race or the official WTA ranking in the main-tour calculation rounds covered by the WTA Finals qualification formula. The Race uses WTA main-tour events and Grand Slams only.

What happens if a qualified player withdraws?

The alternate on site steps into the vacated spot and plays the remaining round-robin matches of the replaced player. Earned ranking points and prize money follow the WTA Finals schedule for alternates.