The final tournament of the Women's Tennis Association (WTA) starts on Monday in the US Fort Worth (Texas). Two Russians will perform in it. Darya Kasatkina will play in singles, Veronika Kudermetova in doubles.
Kasatkina has qualified for the final WTA tournament on 21 October. This happened after the American Madison Keys lost at the tournament in Guadalajara to Belarusian Victoria Azarenka. Thus, Kasatkina became the first Russian since 2016 to qualify for the final start of the season.
Women's Tennis Association (WTA)
WTA Finals, Group Tracy Austin
02 November 2022 • start at 01:00
Match has not started
Iga SchwętekPoland
– : –Daria KasatkinaRussia
Only one Russian tennis player, Maria Sharapova (2004), has won the final WTA tournament in its entire history. She also reached the final of the competition twice (2007, 2012). Vera Zvonareva managed to do this one more time (2008). >In doubles, Russian women more often achieved success in the final WTA tournament. In a duet with Swiss Martina Hingis, Anna Kournikova became the champion twice. Nadezhda Petrova also won the tournament twice — paired with compatriot Maria Kirilenko and American Megan Shaughnessy. Elena Dementieva won the duet with Slovak Zhanetta Gusarova. The champions were Elena Vesnina and Ekaterina Makarova, they also reached the final. Elena Likhovtseva played in the final twice.
Finally, back in Soviet times, Larisa Savchenko-Neiland and Natalia Zvereva played twice in the finals of the final tournament. After the collapse of the USSR, Zvereva, already representing Belarus, became the champion three times. Savchenko-Neiland played for Latvia three times in the finals.
For getting into the final WTA tournament in Veronika Kudermetova, who previously qualified for these competitions in doubles, also competed in singles. However, in the same Guadalajara, she lost in the quarterfinals to Maria Sakkari from Greece and remained outside the coveted eight in singles.
A Greek woman booked her place. Earlier, Iga Sventek from Poland, Ons Zhaber from Tunisia, Americans Jessica Pegula and Corey Gauff, Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia and Arina Sobolenko from Belarus received the right to compete.
On Friday, the draw took place. Together with Kasatkina, seeded under the eighth number, Tracy Austin's group included Shventek, Gauff and Garcia. Nancy Ritchie's group consisted of Zhaber, Pegula, Sakkari and Sobolenko.»Obviously, both groups are very difficult. I knew that in any case there would be a big battle. If you want to win, you must do your best. It will be fun,» said Kasatkina, commenting on the results of the draw.
The draw for the final tournament also took place in doubles. The Rosie Casals group included Czechs Barbora Kreychikova and Katerina Sinyakova, Americans Jessica Pegula and Corey Gauff, Chinese women Yifan Xu and Zhaoxuan Yang, as well as the American-Dutch duet Desire Krawczyk and Demi Schürs. Pam Shriver's group included Canadian Gabriela Dabrowski and Mexican Giliana Olmos, Kudermetova and Belgian Elise Mertens, Ukrainian Lyudmila Kichenok and Latvian representative Alena Ostapenko, as well as Anna Danilina from Kazakhstan and Brazilian Beatrice Haddad Maia.
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Sventek is considered the undisputed favorite of the final WTA tournament among single skaters. In the world rankings, she is ahead of the nearest rival by almost 6,000 points. Sventek has won two Grand Slams this season — the French and US Opens. In April, she led the world classification and since then has only increased the lead.
" how Gauff, Garcia and Kasatkina play. I am very happy to be at the final tournament. I feel that this is a celebration for all the achievements of the year. I'm just proud to play here", said the Polish tennis player before the start of the tournament.
Women's Tennis Association (WTA)
WTA Finals Doubles, Group Pam Shriver
01 November 2022 • kick-off at 23:00
Match has not started
Veronika KudermetovaRussiaElise MertensBelgium
– : –Lyudmila KichenokUkraineElena OstapenkoLatvia
Kasatkina will immediately face a serious test. Meeting with the first racket of the world. Kudermetova and Mertens will play with a pair of Kichenok/Ostapenko. And on Monday, the matches of Pegula — Sakkari and Zhaber — Sobolenko will take place at the competition.
The final WTA tournament will last until November 7th. The total prize fund of the competition will be five million dollars.