There\u2019s still tennis left to play, but not much room to move. With the regular season winding down, three players hold the inside track for the final two singles spots at the PIF WTA Finals in Riyadh.<\/p>\n
Mirra Andreeva, Jasmine Paolini and Elena Rybakina are separated by only 407 points in the WTA Race standings. One of them will finish outside the top eight and be designated as the first alternate in Riyadh.<\/p>\n
All three are in the draw for China\u2019s AUX Ningbo Open, where play begins on Monday. Crucially, this event offers 500 points to the winner. Paolini and Rybakina are also scheduled to play the following week in the Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo, Japan, the final 500 tournament on the calendar.<\/p>\n
Jessica Pegula\u2019s quarterfinal win over Katerina Siniakova in Wuhan, coupled with Rybakina\u2019s loss to Aryna Sabalenka, officially qualified Pegula. It\u2019s her fourth straight appearance at the year-end championships.<\/p>\n
Sabalenka, Iga Swiatek, Coco Gauff, Amanda Anisimova and Madison Keys qualified ahead of Pegula.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s a closer look at the battle for the remaining spots:<\/p>\n
Who can qualify
\nNo. 7 Mirra Andreeva<\/p>\n
Race points: 4,320<\/p>\n
2025 record: 40-15, 2 titles (Dubai, Indian Wells)<\/p>\n
The skinny: After winning back-to-back WTA 1000 events and reaching the quarterfinals at Roland Garros and Wimbledon, the teenager looked like a sure thing for Riyadh, but there\u2019s been some recent growing pains for the 18-year-old. She\u2019s 4-4 since Wimbledon — and 2-2 in China. Andreeva is the top seed in Ningbo but has a tough draw. She could see Emma Raducanu in her first match and No. 7 seed Diana Shnaider or the winner between Karolina Muchova and Marketa Vondrousova in the second.<\/p>\n
Put simply, if Andreeva wins the title this week, she\u2019s in. But the picture gets more complicated from there, with Rybakina\u2019s results likely to shape how the final spots shake out. For instance, a first-round loss by Rybakina would also send Andreeva through.<\/p>\n
No. 8 Jasmine Paolini<\/p>\n
Race points: 4,131<\/p>\n
2025 record: 35-11, 1 title (Rome)<\/p>\n
The skinny: Paolini closed the gap with a semifinal run in Wuhan before falling to Gauff, 6-4, 6-3. Seeded No. 2 in Ningbo, she\u2019ll open against either Veronika Kudermetova or wild card Zhang Shuai.<\/p>\n
Another semifinal, as long as Elena Rybakina isn\u2019t her opponent, would likely secure qualification; a final would guarantee it.<\/p>\n
No. 9 Elena Rybakina<\/p>\n
Race points: 3,913<\/p>\n
2025 record: 47-19, 1 title (Strasbourg)<\/p>\n
The skinny:\u00a0Elena Rybakina was upset in Beijing\u2019s third round by Eva Lys and went quietly in the Wuhan quarterfinals, losing 6-3, 6-3 to Aryna Sabalenka. The No. 3 seed this week, she opens against the winner of Victoria Mboko and Dayana Yastremska.<\/p>\n
As it stands, Rybakina cannot qualify this week. She would need to reach at least the semifinals to earn additional race points. A title run could move her ahead of Paolini if Paolini fails to reach the semifinal, though Rybakina would still trail Mirra Andreeva.<\/p>\n
Alternate race
\nNo. 10 Ekaterina Alexandrova<\/p>\n
Race points: 3,158<\/p>\n
2025 record: 43-22, 1 title (Linz)<\/p>\n
The skinny: Playing both Ningbo and Tokyo, she\u2019s in the best position to secure the second alternate spot. Alexandrova, 30, makes her Top 10 debut Monday, making her the third-oldest player to make her WTA Top 10 debut behind only Roberta Vinci (33) and Betty Stove (31).<\/p>\n
No. 11 Clara Tauson<\/p>\n
Race points: 2,770<\/p>\n
2025 record: 36-21, 1 title (Auckland)<\/p>\n
The skinny: Also scheduled to play both Ningbo and Tokyo, Tauson is the No. 5 seed and will play qualifier Ajla Tomljanovic in Ningbo\u2019s first round.<\/p>\n
No. 14 Belinda Bencic<\/p>\n
Race points: 2,469<\/p>\n
2025 record: 32-16, 1 title (Abu Dhabi)<\/p>\n
The skinny: With No. 12 Elina Svitolina out for the season and No. 13 Emma Navarro withdrawing, Bencic moves next in line. The 28-year-old mother plans to play both of the final two weeks, beginning as the No. 6 seed against Magda Linette. To reach an alternate spot, Bencic would likely need back-to-back finals and a title at one of the remaining WTA 500 events.<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"There\u2019s still tennis left to play, but not much room to move. With the regular season winding down,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":197940,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[101,118,1602,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-197939","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tennis","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-tennis","10":"tag-text","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom","13":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197939","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=197939"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/197939\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/197940"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=197939"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=197939"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=197939"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}