The 2022 WTA Finals in Fort Worth, Texas: Who is playing? What is the format? What do the winners receive?

The 2022 WTA Tour season will conclude next week with the WTA Finals, set to take place in Fort Worth, Texas. The tournament will see the top eight singles players and doubles teams of the season go head-to-head.

What are the WTA Finals?

The tournament starts with a round-robin event which features the eight singles players and doubles teams who finished top in WTA Finals Leaderboard, which takes into consideration all the results from the season by calculating ranking points that are earned.

The tournament is returning to the United States for the first time since 2005.

The 2021 WTA Finals were originally going to be held in Shenzhen, China, but were moved to Guadalajara, Mexico, amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The implication was that this tournament would take place in China, but the tour announced late last year that it would not have any tournaments in China in 2022 due to concerns about the safety of Peng Shuai, a Grand Slam doubles champion who had accused a former government official of sexual assault.

When are the WTA Finals?

The group stage is set to begin on Monday, October 31 and will finish on Saturday, November 5.

The semifinals will be played the next day, on Sunday, November 6.

The WTA Finals will then follow on Monday, November 7. It will start with the doubles final, which begins at 5:30 pm. and will be followed by the singles final, which is set to start at 8:00 pm.

How does the format work?

Both the singles and doubles competition of the WTA Finals is played in a round-robin format. Players and teams have been drawn into two separate groups, and the top two finishers from each group will go on and advance to the semifinals. The top finisher from each group will face the No.2 finisher from the other.

The semifinals and final will then be played in a standard knockout style.

Who is playing?

Last night, the draw for both the singles and the doubles competition took place, and here is how the groups have shaped up.

The Singles Draw consists of the Tracy Austin Group and the Nancy Richey Group.

Tracy Austin Group

1. Iga Swiatek

4. Coco Gauff

6. Caroline Garcia

8. Daria Kasatkina

Nancy Richey Group

2. Ons Jabeur

3. Jessica Pegula

5. Maria Sakkari

7. Aryna Sabalenka

Jabeur, Pegula, Gauff, and Kasatkina will be playing in their first-ever WTA Finals. Swiatek, Sakkari, Garcia, and Sabalenka, the other four, are playing just their second WTA Finals.

The Doubles Draw consists of the Rosie Casals Group and the Pam Shriver Group.

Rosie Casals Group

1. Barbora Krejcikova/Katerina Siniakova

3. Coco Gauff/ Jessica Pegula

6. Xu Yifan/Yang Zhaoxuan

8. Desiree Krawczyk/Demi Schuurs

Pam Shriver Group

2. Gabriela Dabrowski/Giuliana Olmos

4. Veronika Kudermetova/Elise Mertens

5. Lyudmyla Kichenok/Jelena Ostapenko

7. Anna Danilina/Beatriz Haddad Maia

Krejcikova and Siniakova are the defending champions and the only doubles team to have played in the WTA Finals together.

What do the winners get?

The total prize pool at the WTA Finals in Fort Worth is $5,000,000 USD. Players are awarded a base amount of points and prize money for playing each match, plus additional points and prize money for any wins.

Singles Prize Money: $110,000 USD participation fee, plus $110,000 USD for each round-robin win. If a player advances to the semifinals, she adds an additional $30,000 USD to her winnings. A semifinal win then earns an additional $420,000 USD. Winning the final will earn an additional $820,000 USD.

Doubles Prize Money: $50,000 USD participation fee, plus $20,000 USD for each round-robin win. If a team advances to the semifinals, they will add an additional $5,000 USD to their winnings. A semifinal win earns an additional $80,000 USD. Winning the final earns an additional $170,000 USD.

Ranking Points: 125 points per match played, plus an additional 125 points per round-robin win, 330 points for a semifinal win, and 420 points for winning the final.