Four Americans in the WTA Finals: U.S. women achieve a milestone unseen in 20 years

American tennis is experiencing a great moment on the women's side after Coco Gauff defeated Jessica Pegula in an all-American final for the title at the Wuhan Open this weekend. While the 21-year-old achieved her second title of the season, Pegula's defeat still brought her good news after securing her qualification for the WTA Finals for the fourth consecutive year.

With this, 6 players are now confirmed for the WTA Finals to be held in Riyadh next month, and four of them are Americans, something that has not happened in more than 20 years. The last time 4 American female players qualified for the WTA Finals—still called the WTA Tour Championships—was back in 2003—although only two ultimately competed in the tournament.

If there are no last-minute injuries or setbacks, this season we will see 4 American players in the Finals: Coco Gauff (No. 3), Amanda Anisimova (No. 4), Jessica Pegula (No. 5), and Madison Keys (No. 7) will go to fight for the trophy—joining the already qualified Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Świątek. It would potentially be the first time 4 Americans compete in the tournament since the introduction of the Round Robin format.

Back in 2003, Serena Williams, Lindsay Davenport, Jennifer Capriati, and Venus Williams had qualified for the year-end tournament that brings together the 8 best players of the season. It was the first time the Round Robin format was introduced with only 8 qualifiers.

Of them, only Capriati competed in the tournament—while one of the alternates was Chanda Rubin, so despite 4 Americans qualifying, only two competed in the tournament, which ended with Belgian Kim Clijsters lifting the title—after defeating France's Amélie Mauresmo in the final (6-2, 6-0).

A year earlier, 4 Americans were seen among the 8 top qualifiers for the tournament, although on that occasion, a 16-player direct elimination draw format was still used before the introduction of the groups. Serena Williams (No. 1), Venus Williams (No. 2), Jennifer Capriati (No. 3), and Monica Seles (No. 6) were the stars who arrived as seeds in the draw. While Venus and Capriati were eliminated in the semifinals, Serena lost in the final to Clijsters (5th seed).

The only debutante in the tournament among the Americans will be Amanda Anisimova, who, in the middle of her best season, arrives as World No. 4 to the WTA Finals. She is the champion of two WTA 1000 titles (Doha and China Open), in addition to being a finalist in two Grand Slams (Wimbledon and US Open).

On the other hand, Pegula was first an alternate for the tournament in 2021—despite finishing the season as No. 13 in the ranking. The massive withdrawal of other alternates (like Jabeur, Osaka, Pavlyuchenkova, and Svitolina) ultimately left Pegula as the first option in case of any withdrawal, something that ultimately did not happen.

However, 2022 brought revenge, in an edition that featured two Americans: Jessica Pegula and Coco Gauff qualified directly for the WTA Finals for the first time, but both lost all three of their Round Robin matches, exiting the tournament without victories. Since then, Pegula and Gauff have been part of the draw in the last three editions of the WTA Finals (2022, ’23, ’24).

Pegula reached the final in 2023, but ended up falling to Iga Swiatek (1-6, 0-6). On the other hand, Gauff reached the final for the first time in 2024 and ended up taking the title in one of the most disputed finals in the tournament's history, overcoming Zheng Qinwen (3-6, 6-4, 7-6(2)) to claim her first WTA Finals title.

Joining them in Riyadh will be Madison Keys, who returns to the tournament for the first time after almost 10 years. She first qualified in 2016, where she was the 6th seed and was eliminated in the Round Robin, while in 2022 she was an alternate—without competing in the tournament. The same situation occurred in 2023, when she was one of the alternates, but declined her spot.