2025 WTA Finals: Coco Gauff’s title defence, world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka goes for maiden triumph - format, groups and how to watch live

The final stop of the women’s tennis season awaits at the 2025 WTA Finals (1-8 November).

To wrap up a thrilling 2025 campaign, the eight top-ranked singles players and doubles teams will compete at the year-end tournament in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

With a total prize pot of USD $15.5m and $5.235m on offer for an undefeated singles champion, the stars will be determined to end the year on a high. There is also a maximum of 1,500 ranking points in the WTA rankings for an unbeaten winner.

World No. 3 Coco Gauff returns to the field as the defending singles champion, after she beat Olympic champion Zheng Qinwen (absent this year) in a third-set tiebreak in the 2024 final.

Olympic mixed doubles bronze medallist Gaby Dabrowski and her partner Erin Routliffe are also back in Riyadh, looking to become the first back-to-back doubles champions in six years.

Here is everything you need to know about this year’s WTA Finals.

The women who have qualified for the WTA Finals 2025 - complete player list

2025 WTA Finals – the stars on show, from Iga Świątek to Amanda Anisimova

With four different Grand Slam champions this season, the year-end finals lineup was always going to produce an exciting octet. World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka has been the most consistent player on tour and will be year-end No. 1 for the second year running – now the aim is to conquer the WTA Finals trophy for the first time in her career.

The US Open champion is up against Gauff in the group stage, in a repeat of the Roland-Garros final where the latter prevailed. Jessica Pegula is the other USA star in the Stefanie Graf Group – in fact, half of the overall singles field hail from the States.

Olympic doubles champion Jasmine Paolini completes the group, where the Italian holds the feat of being the only WTA player to qualify for this year’s finals in both the singles and doubles event, alongside Sara Errani.

The other group is named after Serena Williams, the last singles player to win the WTA Finals back-to-back and three times in a row. It is headlined by 2023 champion Iga Świątek, who ended her 13-month trophy drought in stunning style at Wimbledon.

Another major final repeat lies in store, when the Polish player meets USA world No. 4 and finals debutant Amanda Anisimova. The 24-year-old became a two-time Grand Slam finalist this season, adding two WTA 1000 titles to her collection in the process.

Świątek is one of three major champions in the Serena Williams Group, which includes a total of eight major trophies. Australian Open winner Madison Keys is back on court after two months and returning to the WTA Finals after her sole appearance in 2016.

The lineup is rounded off by Elena Rybakina, the 2022 Wimbledon champion, who booked her spot in the 11th hour with a fantastic last few weeks. With five Grand Slam singles champions and two Olympic medallists, expect a thrilling week of tennis to draw the curtain on the 2025 season.

2025 WTA Finals – format

The eight players are divided into two groups of four, where they will play three best-of-three-set matches in the group stage. Each round-robin win is worth three points, which sees the top two progress from each group.

If any two players are level on points, whoever won the match between the players in question will have the advantage in the standings. Should there be a three-way tie, the order is determined by the following tiebreakers, in order: matches played, total sets won, and total games won.

The semi-finals onwards are straight knockout matches through to the final on 8 November, where one woman will be crowned queen of the WTA Finals for 2025.

Players will earn 200 points for a group stage win, 400 points if they triumph in the semi-final, and 500 points for going all the way. That means a maximum of 1,500 points is on offer for any player who can win five out of five matches.

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