Finals WTA WTA Finals
Players Gather in Riyadh as WTA Finals Draw Sets the Stage
WTA Finals players attended the Riyadh draw, toured the city and led community clinics before play..
The WTA Finals draw and related events provided a low-key prelude to the season’s final tournament. With play scheduled to begin on Saturday, November 1, the top qualifiers spent the week in Riyadh attending the draw, public appearances and community programs.
The official draw took place at CORE Social Wellness Club. Tournament director Garbiñe Muguruza joined WTA Supervisor Kerrilyn Cramer to unveil the groups, which were named after women’s tennis icons Stefanie Graf and Serena Williams in singles, and Martina Navratilova and Liezel Huber in doubles.
In singles, the Stefanie Graf Group features top seed Aryna Sabalenka with Coco Gauff, Jessica Pegula and Jasmine Paolini. The Serena Williams Group is led by defending WTA Finals champion Iga Swiatek and includes Amanda Anisimova, Elena Rybakina and Madison Keys. The round robin format sends the top two from each group into the semifinals, with players competing for the Billie Jean King Trophy.
Doubles groups were also revealed. The Martina Navratilova Group lists Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini at the top, with Veronika Kudermetova and Elise Mertens; Hsieh Su-Wei and Jelena Ostapenko; and Asia Muhammad with Demi Schuurs. The Liezel Huber Group includes Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend; Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe; Mirra Andreeva and Diana Shnaider; and Timea Babos with Luisa Stefani. Defending doubles champions Erin Routliffe and Gabriela Dabrowski posed with the doubles trophy alongside WTA CEO Portia Archer.
Off court, players explored the city and took part in promotional activities. Swiatek, who won the event in 2023, shared photos from a sightseeing day captioned: “Day off vibes. Team, spectacular views, and taking photos of pigeons.” She later joined a Special Olympics clinic alongside Jessica Pegula, Caroline Garcia and the doubles duo Dabrowski and Routliffe. The week’s schedule wrapped up with players preparing to move onto court action at King Saud University Indoor Arena.
Equipment Finals Grand Slam
Sabalenka debuts Wilson Blade v10 and reflects on pressure, regret and grief in Esquire profile
World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka debuts a Wilson Blade v10, discusses grief, regrets and lessons. Read on
Fans missing Aryna Sabalenka at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix have been met with a steady stream of new material from the world No. 1. Sabalenka unveiled her new racquet and posed for a fashion-forward Esquire cover shoot while speaking with editor-in-chief Michael Sebastian.
The Wilson advertisement for the Blade v10 carries a simple declaration: “Pressure is power,” a line that echoed Sabalenka’s 2026 run. A four-time Grand Slam champion, the 27-year-old rebounded from an Australian Open final loss to Elena Rybakina by completing the Sunshine Double, taking back-to-back titles at the BNP Paribas Open and the Miami Open. In Miami she avenged the Australian Open defeat to Rybakina in straight sets.
Asked how she might have lived her life outside tennis, she said she would be a “boxer or a model,” and in the Esquire conversation she addressed mistakes and hard lessons.
“I have a lot of regrets. I think we all do,” she told editor-in-chief Michael Sebastian. “Mistakes make us better people. It’s tough to be the person without regrets and mistakes. You better stay away from those people.”
Sabalenka also revisited a difficult moment after the Roland Garros final, when she was hesitant to immediately praise Coco Gauff following a three-set defeat. “I have to take my time after the match before I go to the press conference when I lose the match, because when you do it straightaway, you’re still that emotional person,” said Sabalenka. The two players later smoothed things over and recorded conciliatory TikToks.
Beyond on-court swings, Sabalenka spoke about personal loss. She has carried the grief of losing her father in 2019 and urged emotional honesty. “It’s important to grieve, to cry, to go through the emotions,” she said. “Never hold it inside, because it’ll destroy you from the inside.”
Billie Jean King Cup Finals ITF
U.S. eliminated from Billie Jean King Cup qualifying after 3-1 loss to Belgium
U.S. eliminated from Billie Jean King Cup qualifying after 3-1 loss to Belgium in Ostend. Shenzhen .
The United States will not compete for a place at the Billie Jean King Cup Finals after a 3-1 defeat to Belgium in Ostend. Belgium’s captain Wim Fissette watched Greet Minnen secure the tie with a straight-sets victory over Iva Jovic, completing the deciding match on Sunday.
Making her event debut, 18-year-old Iva Jovic lost twice for her nation. She was beaten by Hanne Vandewinkel, 7-6 (3), 6-3 on Friday and then fell 7-5, 6-3 to Minnen when Belgium closed out the tie.
The U.S. fell into an early deficit when McCartney Kessler was forced to retire at 3-3 against Elise Mertens because of a back injury. That retirement handed Belgium a 2-0 lead before the Americans responded on Saturday, when Caty McNally and Nicole Melichar-Martinez each won to put the team on the scoreboard.
U.S. captain Lindsay Davenport reflected on the tie afterwards. “We tried really hard all week to find our groove and to figure out how we were gonna play, how we’re gonna get three points.But Belgium played so well. They had a great crowd here,” she said.
“We just never quite got to playing our best. We got a little bit of, obviously, bad luck with McCartney. She was playing great. We felt like she had really seized momentum in that match when things started to go the other way. But we’ll keep working. It’s a process for sure.”
Italy led the other successful nations in qualifying, and September’s Billie Jean King Cup Finals will once again be staged in Shenzhen. The U.S., a record 18-time champion, will not be among the teams contesting the Finals this year.
Finals Grand Slam
Petra Kvitova welcomes twin daughters, joining a rare group of tennis parents
Kvitova joined an exclusive club of tennis parents with twins, including Mandlikova and Shriver etc.
Petra Kvitova and her husband Jiri Vanek announced that twin daughters Emma and Ella were born on March 30, making the two-time Wimbledon champion a mother of three. The arrival of the twins followed the couple’s earlier child, son Petr, who was born during the 2024 Wimbledon fortnight. Kvitova’s Instagram announcement drew more than 100,000 likes, and peers including Barbora Krejcikova, Garbiñe Muguruza and Sloane Stephens offered congratulations.
Kvitova’s twin birth comes amid a notable run of new parents on the professional tour. The draft of recent arrivals includes Garbiñe Muguruza, Ashleigh Barty, Angelique Kerber and Daria Saville, while Ons Jabeur and Caroline Garcia are expected to become first-time moms soon. The rarity of top players becoming parents of twins was underscored by comparisons to other well-known multiples in tennis, such as the Bryan brothers and the Pliskova twins, and to families of former pros who have had twins.
One of the most prominent households with two sets of twins belongs to Roger Federer and his wife Mirka. Their daughters Myla Rose and Charlene Riva were born in 2009, and sons Lenny and Leo followed in 2014. Federer reflected on winning at Wimbledon with his children present: “I looked up in the stands and saw my kids … then it started to sink in that I was a Wimbledon champion for real,” he said then, per *People* magazine .
“I saw the boys for the first time, and [seeing] them coming out to Centre Court and knowing how much Centre Court means to me, and seeing them like not knowing what’s going on. And then the girls were there too, and my wife was emotional. It just really hit me.”
Other women from past generations who are mothers to twins include Hana Mandlikova, Gigi Fernandez and Pam Shriver. Mandlikova welcomed Elizabeth and Mark in 2001; Elizabeth Mandlik has competed on the WTA Tour and reached a career-high ranking of No. 97 in 2023, while Mark Mandlik had a standout college career at the University of Oklahoma. Shriver had a son and daughter in 2005, and Fernandez had twins in 2009. Carla Suárez Navarro and partner Olga García welcomed twin daughters Noa and Ona in June 2023 after Suárez Navarro recovered from Hodgkin lymphoma.
Kvitova retired officially after last year’s US Open with 31 career titles and 634 match victories. In a brief 2025 comeback following Petr’s birth she won one of nine matches, and she suggested she was “totally ready” to step away. “Mentally, I think I can’t do it any more, as well as emotionally and physically. … You still remember how you played before, how everything was smooth and I was hitting winners and suddenly it’s not there,” she said.
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