The increasingly unpredictable nature of women’s tennis will be on display in Guadalajara on Wednesday when a severely depleted field will lift the curtain from a difficult 2021 season at the WTA Tour Finals. 23-time Grand Slam champion Serena Williams with an injury, four-time Grand Slam winner Naomi Osaka’s long hiatus and Australia’s world number one Ashleigh Barty opted to skip the event, a pan-European eight-woman field event. will be left to compete for the title of the end of the season. It marks the end of a season where the only certainty has been uncertainty. That point is reflected in the fact that this season’s four Grand Slam finals featured eight different players.
Only two of the 2021 Grand Slam finalists have traveled to Mexico for the WTA Finals – Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic, world number three who won the French Open in June, and her compatriot Karolina Pliskova, defeated by Barty at Wimbledon.
Two teen sensations who lit up the US Open – Britain’s 18-year-old fairytale winner Emma Radukanu and Canada’s 19-year-old Leylah Fernandez – both failed to qualify.
Six of the eight players on the field are playing in the WTA Finals for the first time, with Pliskova and Spain’s Garbine Muguruza being the only experienced players.
The tournament, which is taking place in Mexico this year, has split the field into two groups of four after the pandemic moved from its usual home in Shenzhen, China.
The winners and runners-up of the group go to the semi-finals.
Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus began the event as the top seed, qualifying for the finals after one season, scoring semi-finals at Wimbledon and the US Open after victories in Abu Dhabi and Madrid.
Second seed Pliskova has yet to enter the winner’s circle this season, the highlight of which remains her march to the final at Wimbledon. Greece’s Maria Sakkari, seeded five of Mexico, is also chasing her first title of the year.
As the only 2021 Grand Slam champion in the line-up, third seed Krejcikova could well emerge as the one to beat.
The 25-year-old from Brno won this season in Strasbourg and Prague and set off with her first Grand Slam win at Roland Garros, and a breakthrough with a doubles gold medal with Katerina Sinyakova at the Tokyo Olympics.
Krejcikova will pair again with Siniakova in doubles in Guadalajara.
Poland’s Inga Swietake, a surprise winner of the French Open in 2020, is seeded fourth, looking to claim a third tournament in 2021 after victories in Adelaide and Rome.
Spain’s sixth seed Muguruza, who failed to progress past the fourth round at this year’s Grand Slam, is also chasing a third title after winning Doha and Chicago.
Muguruza’s compatriot Paula Badosa reached Guadalajara anew with a confidence-boosting win at Indian Wells last month, her second career title since her victory in Belgrade in May.
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