WTA Finals Race: Seven players qualified as Zheng edges out Navarro for final spot

Seven players have already qualified for the WTA Finals, with only one spot remaining. Until a week ago, only Iga Swiatek, Aryna Sabalenka, and Barbora Krejcikova had secured their places. Although the Czech player is not in the top 8, she has a reserved spot as the Wimbledon champion. The Finals are set to take place from November 2 to 9 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Following the last WTA 1000 tournament of the year at the Wuhan Open and with few points left to distribute in the coming weeks, four more players have secured their qualification. They are Coco Gauff, Jasmine Paolini, Elena Rybakina (who has not competed in recent weeks), and Jessica Pegula.

Krejcikova will return three years after her debut, and Paolini will be the only newcomer in the tournament. The other qualified players have all participated in the same event in 2023, where Swiatek won the title undefeated with a dominant victory over Pegula.

One spot remains for the WTA Finals, and Zheng Qinwen is in the best position to claim it after strong performances at the China Open (reaching the semifinals) and now in Wuhan (reaching the quarterfinals). A few weeks ago, Emma Navarro led by over 500 points and was in the last qualifying position, but the 22-year-old Chinese player managed to reduce the gap and move up to the 7th spot.

'Queenwen' currently has 3,675 points in the Live Race, while Emma Navarro trails behind with 3,568. The American has suffered from early defeats in Asia and has lost the advantage she had over Zheng. However, nothing is decided yet, as both still have two tournaments left before the end of the year: the WTA 500 Ningbo and the WTA 500 Tokyo Open.

Far behind them are Danielle Collins (3,177), Daria Kasatkina (2,878), and Paula Badosa (2,714). Kasatkina and Badosa will follow the same tournament path as Zheng and Navarro, while Collins will skip Ningbo but has added the WTA 250 Hong Kong to her schedule.

Although they are not mathematically eliminated, any of them would need to win two consecutive titles and hope Zheng and Navarro gain practically no points in their upcoming matches, making it almost certain that either the Chinese player or the American will claim the last spot.