WTA Finals: Dates, venue, format and history

The WTA Finals is the season-ending tournament on the WTA Tour and represents a final chance for the leading lights of the women's game to finish the campaign on a high.

After the four Grand Slam events - the Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and US Open - the WTA Finals is regarded as the most lucrative prize on the women's tour with the top eight players in the rankings competing for a big purse and a prestigious title.

The 2024 event was won by American Coco Gauff who saw off Zheng Qinwen in the final.

WTA Finals date

The 2025 WTA Finals will take place in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia in 2025.

WTA Finals venue

The 2025 WTA Finals will take place at the King Saud University Indoor Arena in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

This will mark the second year in a row the event has taken place in Riyadh following the 2024 tournament won by Coco Gauff.

WTA Finals format

The top eight singles players and doubles teams in the WTA rankings qualify automatically for the WTA Finals based on their results during the year.

In both the singles and doubles competitions there are two groups of four with players or teams playing three matches in a round-robin format.

The top two players or teams from each group then progress to the knockout stage with two semi-finals followed by a final to decide the winner.

There are also two reserve players on standby in case injuries or illness rule out one of the chosen eight.

WTA Finals history

The WTA Finals was first staged in 1972 and five of the eight players involved were Americans, with fourth seed Chris Evert eventually being crowned champion.

It was originally called the Virginia Slims Championships but it was given a rebrand in 1995 and changed its name to the WTA Tour Championships.

Interestingly, from 1984 to 1998, the final in singles format was played over a best-of-five-set format with eight-time champion Martina Navratilova particularly profiting from that decision.

Who has won the WTA Finals on the most occasions?

Navratilova is the most decorated player in WTA Finals history with eight titles, having triumphed in four successive years from 1983 to 1986.

Steffi Graf, who defeated Navratilova in the 1989 final, was a five-time winner of the event along with American great Serena Williams, who claimed her last title in 2014.

Since that triumph for Williams, there have been eight different champions crowned, with Gauff the most recent name on the list.

WTA Finals participants

The WTA Finals field is decided via the season-long Race to the WTA Finals rankings which take into account points accrued in all WTA Tour events from January onwards.

The top eight on the Race to the WTA Finals automatically qualify for the tournament while the players in ninth and tenth usually travel as reserves in the event of any injuries.