The WTA Race to Riyadh stretch run, explained

Here’s where the races currently stand:

Now, how does the PIF Race to Riyadh work?

Eight players/teams to compete in singles/doubles. To qualify, players/teams have to play a minimum of eight WTA 1000 or WTA 500 tournaments during the season. Players/teams are qualified in the following order:

• Ranked top seven in the leaderboard
• The highest-ranked current-year Grand Slam winning player/team ranked from eighth to twentieth
  • The second-highest-ranked current-year Grand Slam winning player/team ranked from eighth to twentieth, if one player/team ranked in the top seven withdraws;
• The next player who is ranked eighth or below.

For singles qualifiers, points are tallied from eighteen tournaments (ITF and WTA 125 events are not counted). These eighteen tournaments include:

• All four Grand Slam tournaments;
• A player’s top six finishes among seven mandatory WTA 1000 events: Indian Wells, Miami, Madrid, Rome, Toronto/Montreal, Cincinnati, and Beijing;
• The player’s best result from three mandatory WTA 1000 tournaments: Doha, Dubai, and Wuhan;
• The player’s seven strongest performances across all remaining mandatory WTA 1000 tournaments, plus any WTA 500 and WTA 250 tournaments.

For doubles, points are accumulated from any twelve tournaments during the season. The only requirement is that teams must have played at least two tournaments together.

This week, the tour is holding a WTA 500 in Ningbo, China and a WTA 250 in Osaka, Japan. Next week will hold another 500/250 combo before the season wraps up with three WTA 250 events. There are three players who will contend for those two spots – Mirra Andreeva, Jasmine Paolini and Elena Rybakina.

With 500 points on the line and only 200 points between the three players, a lot could happen — but we could see a qualification arise this week. However, it won’t be Rybakina, who can at best move into the No. 8 spot if she wins the title and Paolini falls before the semifinals.

If Rybakina loses her opening match to Dayana Yastremska, Mirra Andreeva becomes the seventh qualifier. The Russian would also qualify with a title-winning run, as well. There are other mathematical chances Andreeva can book her spot, but those are the two most-likely, at the moment. For Paolini, a semifinal run combined with a Rybakina pre-semifinal loss will be enough to qualify. However, I see the Top 3 seeds all making the semifinals in Ningbo and perhaps putting that last qualification berth on the line in Tokyo (where both Paolini and Rybakina are entered).

The race in doubles isn’t as stressful and the Top 8 are pretty much set in place. Asia Muhammad and Demi Schuurs lost their opener in Ningbo, while Timea Babos and Luisa Stefani won theirs. A final could move Babos and Stefani into the No. 7 slot and a title could push them formally into Riyadh. I wouldn’t expect any qualification announcements to come from doubles until Tokyo, though.

Based on recent play, I think Mirra Andreeva and Jasmine Paolini will be the final two singles qualifiers but Paolini has been playing quite a bit of tennis between the Billie Jean King Cup Finals (3 singles and 1 doubles match), Beijing (singles quarterfinals and doubles semifinals) and Wuhan (singles semifinals), so fatigue could be an interesting factor entering both Ningbo and Tokyo.

Time will tell but until then, on to links!

Readers of The IX save 50% on The IX Basketball subscription!

The IX Basketball: 24/7/365 women’s basketball coverage, written, edited and photographed by our young, diverse staff, dedicated to breaking news, analysis, historical deep dives and projections about the game we love.

Subscribe to make sure this vital work of creating a pipeline of young, diverse media professionals to write, edit and photograph the great game continues and grows. Your subscription ensures our writers and editors creating 24/7/365 women’s basketball coverage get paid to do it!

This Week in Women’s Tennis

Ignoring her coach’s advice, Coco Gauff treated the Wuhan Open like a practice and emerged with her first WTA 1000 title of the year with a win over Jessica Pegula in the final. Storm Hunter reunited with Katerina Siniakova to win her first doubles title since her Achilles rupture 13 months ago, defeating Anna Danilina and Aleksandra Krunic.

At the Vanda Pharmaceuticals Mallorca Women’s Championships, Solana Sierra won the second WTA 125 title of her career and got to receive the trophy from her idol, Gabriela Sabatini.

Speaking of Katerina Siniakova, she’s collecting doubles partners like infinity stones and doing more than well:

After a career-best year, Ekaterina Alexandrova is the latest player to crack the Top 10. She becomes the third-oldest player to reach the milestone and the fifth player this century to do so without reaching a Grand Slam quarterfinal.

Though she’s 36, Zhang Shuai still believes she has some of her best tennis in front of her.

Many have spoken about the weather conditions in China, raising even more concerns about the tennis calendar.

Players accused of of tennis integrity charges (both doping and match-fixing) can receive financial, legal and mental health support during their battle to clear their name.

After her final run in Wuhan, Jessica Pegula has now made at least the quarterfinals at all WTA 1000 events, on top of the same at the WTA Finals and four Grand Slams.

Tweet of the Week

Want more women’s hockey content? Subscribe to The Ice Garden!
In case you missed it, The Ice Garden is now part of The IX Sports family!
The staff of The Ice Garden has paved the way for women’s hockey coverage from the college ranks to international competitions. Of course, that includes in-depth coverage of the PWHL too.

Five at The IX: Wuhan Open

“When I came on tour, you were one of the first people to be nice to me and welcome me with open arms….That really went a long way, so I appreciate you. It’s great to finally play in the final against you, and I hope for many more. So, congratulations and thank you.” – Coco Gauff acknowledging Jessica Pegula after their final.

“I think the fact that I’ve had outrageous matches the last three weeks has
actually really helped me, because I’ve had match points, I’ve saved match points, I’ve been up, I’ve dropped leads. Pretty much every single scenario I’ve been through multiple times before tonight,” – Jessica Pegula, who had played eight consecutive three-set matches during the China swing

“Finally I won a match,…“I’m super happy about my level. Just feels amazing.” – Jasmine Paolini, who beat Iga Swiatek for the first time in seven meetings.

“We have a really huge history against each other….Always great battles, always push me to the limit to get the win.” – Aryna Sabalenka after finally getting a straight-sets win against Elena Rybakina

“I try to be as humble as possible, because every tournament is different…You have to step on a new court almost every single day. So I tried to focus just on this tournament, and leave what happened last week behind.” Linda Noskova not letting her recent success overwhelm her tennis.