WTA Finals: Iga Swiatek Poses Serious Threat to Coco Gauff’s Path Despite Favorable Draw for the American Star

It is the moment that every player on the WTA Tour has been waiting for. After a hectic season of ups and downs, the top seven players of the season and the highest-placed Grand Slam winner descend to Riyadh to play in the WTA Finals. It will be a battle between the stars who have performed consistently and won big tournaments in 2024. Among them are the likes of Iga Swiatek, Aryna Sabalenka, and Coco Gauff. Earlier today, the draw for the year-ending championships was released and it is set to promise a lot of fireworks on the court.

All eyes will be on Coco Gauff, who, at 20, is making her third consecutive appearance in the year-ending event. Last year, she reached the semifinal of the event and will look to go deeper as she aims to win her first WTA Finals crown. Moreover, luck is on Gauff’s side as she has been handed a fairly easy draw in the tournament.

Gauff is placed in the Orange Group alongside the likes of Iga Swiatek, Jessica Pegula, and Barbora Krejcikova. By the looks of it, only Swiatek looks like a potential danger for Gauff as she can easily overcome the challenges of Pegula and Krejcikova, who haven’t been in the best of form of late.Moreover, Swiatek would also be returning after a long and with the coaching controversy behind her. The American sensation would look to exploit these situations as she aims to shine in Riyadh.

However, ahead of the big tournament, Gauff wore a calm and relaxed look. As she planned for the WTA Finals, Gauff revealed, “I’m looking at dresses. They have a lot of things planned for us. I’m super excited.” Thus, one could expect fireworks from her when she steps onto the court in Riyadh.

While Gauff will go out all guns blazing, Swiatek will have her sight set on the World Number 1 ranking. Aryna Sabalenka currently holds the top spot and it doesn’t look like she will surrender it anytime soon.

Owing to her good form of late and Swiatek’s absence, Sabalenka replaced the Polish star on top of the WTA rankings chart. The Belarusian star currently has 9016 ranking points, while Swiatek sits second at 7970 points. Sabalenka has a golden opportunity to end the year as the World Number 1, especially because Swiatek has to defend the WTA Finals title that she won last year. As a result, Sabalenka sounded confident to achieve her dream.

She said, “Of course, this is something I really want to do (become number one), it is one of my goals. But I learned in the past that if you focus on the rankings and defending points and all that kind of pressure, things can easily go wrong. So I prefer to focus on myself and when I’m on court I just try to bring my best tennis and fight for every point.”

Sabalenka is paired alongside the likes of Elena Rybakina, Jasmine Paolini, and Zheng Qinwen. It’ll be interesting to see who takes the title in Riyadh and ends the year on a high.