LOS ANGELES, Oct. 25, 2023 - American stars Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula are returning to the most exclusive event in women’s tennis, the season-ending WTA Finals, live on Tennis Channel October 29-November 5. Held in Cancun, Mexico, this year, the annual championships feature the eight singles players and doubles teams that earned the most points on the tour in 2023. The first match takes place Sunday, Oct. 29, at 3:30 p.m. ET.
This year’s US Open singles champion, Gauff is ranked No. 3 in the world in singles and No. 4 in doubles. Pegula is also No. 4 in doubles with her partner Gauff, and No. 4 in singles. Both qualified for the event for the first time in 2022 and will play singles and pair with each other for doubles again this year.
A showcase of the year’s best performers, the WTA Finals divides the eight singles players into pools of four, with every woman playing one match each against the other members of her group. At the end of the week, both pools’ top-two players advance to the single-elimination semifinals and final. The tournament uses the same format for the year’s eight best doubles teams.
The arrangement guarantees matches between the year’s best, given its round-robin format. Any competition can easily feature combatants who squared off with one another at a major final or semifinal earlier in the season. The event often also features a larger prize than the year’s All Stars chasing the WTA Finals trophy: the chance for a year-end No. 1 ranking and place in the tennis history books.
Tennis Channel’s exclusive WTA Finals coverage will include more than 50 live hours and 30 hours of encore replays. Live play at the eight-day event gets underway at 3:30 p.m. ET every day except Sunday, Nov. 5, when the singles and doubles finals begin at 5:30 p.m. ET (complete schedule below). Before that, every day will feature four matches: two singles and two doubles. These will be held in round-robin format until Saturday, Nov. 4, which will feature two singles and two doubles semifinals, elimination matches to determine the finalists on November 5.
The WTA Finals will be part of Tennis Channel’s worldwide Center Court coverage, alongside live telecasts from the men’s Paris Masters tournament in France. Competition in Cancun that does not appear live on the network will be live on subscription service Tennis Channel Plus, with all WTA Finals matches available on demand following their completion.
Hall of Famer Lindsay Davenport (@LDavenport76) won the women’s year-end singles title in 1999 and doubles championships from 1996-1998. She returns as a Tennis Channel analyst during this year’s event. She will work in the booth with announcer and former player Chanda Rubin (@ChandaRubin). Rubin reached the WTA Finals in 2003 and is the 1996 Australian Open doubles champion. Recently retired CoCo Vandeweghe (@CocoVandey) will be one half of the network’s tournament-desk team, interviewing players and guests with award-winning Tennis Channel host Steve Weissman (@SteveWeissman). During her playing days Vandeweghe was admired for her tenaciousness on the court while maintaining candor and humor with reporters and fans.
In addition to Gauff and Pegula, Americans Desirae Krawczyk and Nicole Melichar-Martinez are on doubles teams that qualified for this year’s WTA Finals. Krawczyk (World No. 11) won three doubles titles in 2023 and is a former doubles finalist at Roland Garros, commonly called the French Open. Melichar-Martinez’s (World No. 23) resume includes more than a dozen doubles championships, with doubles finals appearances at Wimbledon and the US Open.
Among this year’s notable contenders outside the United States are World No. 1 singles player Aryna Sabalenka - who battled Gauff in this year’s US Open singles championship - and World No. 2 Iga Swiatek, who has won the past two Roland Garros singles titles, two of four major trophies in her collection. Fan-favorite Ons Jabeur (World No. 7) is a three-time major singles finalist and the first Arab or African woman to reach a Grand Slam final in tennis’ Open Era.
