The women's singles at the China Open came to an end, with Gauff beating Mukhova to win the tournament for the first time, and at the same time gaining 1,000 points, rising to fourth place in the WTA Race, basically locking up a place in the year-end finals.
This year's WTA Finals, which will be held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, from November 2 to 9, 2024, will have a total prize fund of $15.25 million, slightly higher than the total prize money of China Open of $13.14 million.
According to the rules, the top eight players in the world in terms of points this year will qualify for the year-end finals, and if there are players who win a Grand Slam title for the first time and are in the top 20 at the end of the year, they will automatically qualify.
At Wimbledon this year, Krejcikova won the championship and won her first Grand Slam title, and with the locking of the year-end top 20, she also won a place in the year-end finals in advance. In addition, Swiatek and Sabalenka have a huge lead over points, and they are also locked in their seats in advance, which has been officially announced by the WTA before.
Latest WTA Live Championship Standings (after the end of the China Open):
1. Swiatek 8285 points
2. Sabalenka 8101 points
3. Rybakina 4981 points
4. Gauff 4978 points
5. Paulini 4940 points
6. Pegula 4596 points
7. Navarro 3568 points
8. Zheng Qinwen 3470 points
9. Collins 3178 points
10. Kasatkina 2768 points
Judging from the above points, Rybakina, Gauff, Paulini, and Pegula have more than 4,500 points, and are ahead of Navarro and Zheng Qinwen behind them by more than 1,000 points, and then only the Wuhan Open 1000 match, Ningbo Station 500 match, and Tokyo Station 500 match can grab points, so Rybakina, Gauff, Paolini, and Pegula will only fall out of the top seven in extreme circumstances, and they will all be shortlisted for the year-end finals.
In fact, the last place in the year-end finals will be between Zheng Qinwen and Navarro.
After Zheng Qinwen stopped in the semi-finals of the China Open, his latest points reached 3,568 points, only 98 points away from Navarro, who ranked seventh.
Due to the very dense schedule, Zheng Qinwen should focus on WTA1000 Wuhan and WTA500 Ningbo, if he can win the Wuhan Open, the points will go from 98 points behind to 902 points, optimistically he can lock up the year-end finals, and Navarro wants to snatch back the seventh possibility is very small.
Previously, only Li Na participated in the year-end finals of Chinese players, and was shortlisted for three consecutive years (2011, 2012, 2013), expecting Zheng Qinwen to become the second person in history.