Tennis: World No. 1 and defending champion Elena Rybakina faces seven challengers at an intriguing WTA Finals

Rewind the clock by a year.

Elena Rybakina was the last player to qualify for the WTA Finals. She left Riyadh unbeaten, with the trophy and a straight-sets win over Aryna Sabalenka, then world No. 1. As this season’s finale begins in Indian Wells, Rybakina will be the defending champion, the winner of two Grand Slam titles in 2026 and firmly on top of the rankings. She has gone from barging into the top echelons of the sport, to now being the leader of the pack.

Of the eight women in California, Rybakina will be most eager to get her hands on the trophy. She beat Sabalenka in both the Australian Open and US Open finals, taking over as No. 1 after the New York triumph. The authority and poise in her play has delivered 54 wins in 68 matches this year, and four titles including two majors. At Indian Wells, Rybakina can become the first woman to retain the Finals title since Serena Williams won three in a row from 2012 to 2014.


“I would like to push and finish at No. 1,” Rybakina said in Beijing after her US Open win. She admitted then that things can quickly change with so many good players around.

That is what makes this tournament such a fitting test, with only the most consistent on the circuit making the cut. If she can come through this field, Rybakina’s claim to being the best player in the world will have the weight of three of the season’s biggest titles behind it.

For Sabalenka, now ranked two, the motivation is shaped entirely different. She won Indian Wells and Miami back-to-back and reached two major finals. For most players that would be a season to savour, but for the imposing Belarussian a year without a Slam is an underwhelming outcome. She will be hunting for her first Finals title, the biggest prize available outside the majors.

“Hopefully it will go the same way as Indian Wells in March,” she said after qualifying. Sabalenka can count on the memory of having beaten Rybakina in that final and another trophy on the same courts would give her something to carry into the off-season besides the not-so-pleasant memories of having to watch Rybakina hold up the winner’s trophy in Melbourne and New York.

The two other women who won majors this year are split between the groups. Mirra Andreeva, who won Roland Garros at 19, is in Sabalenka’s section. She can change the pace of a rally and make a big hitter play an extra ball from an awkward position. Linda Noskova, the Wimbledon champion, is in the same group as Rybakina. Her first serve and flat backhand can take time away even from players accustomed to dictating. Both, now as first-time major champions, will be thirsting to end a memorable season with this prestigious title.

Coco Gauff’s court coverage and Jessica Pegula’s clean, early ballstriking give Rybakina two very different problems in the same group. Across the draw, Elina Svitolina has already made a semi-final on these courts this year, while Karolina Muchova can use her slice and her willingness to come forward to disrupt the rhythm of a group full of accomplished baseliners.

Even as these elite eight front up in the California desert, consider who is missing. Iga Swiatek, a six-time major champion, finished ninth in the race. Marta Kostyuk was next, while Maja Chwalinska, a qualifier who reached the Roland Garros final, and four-time major winner Naomi Osaka were also among those in the chasing pack.

Over the course of the week, the WTA tour Finals will be a celebration of one of the most competitive circuits in all of women’s sport. Rybakina has earned the right to walk out as the first among equals, but the most intriguing sub-plot is that seven women have good reason to believe they can walk out last.