WTA Finals Midterm Report: Sabalenka stamps her name on 2024, as Pegula’s shoulders slump

After a year or two of debate, the WTA finally crossed the Riyadh Rubicon this week, when it brought its year-end championships to the Saudi city. As usual, Coco Gauff described both sides of the argument well in her pre-tournament press conference.

“I would be lying to you if I said I had no reservations,” she admitted of coming to Saudi Arabia for the first time.

But in the end, she came down on the side of engagement, and the power of the WTA’s platform for women.

“My view on it is I do think that sport can have a way to open doors to people,” Gauff said. “I think in order to kind of want change, you have to see it. I think sports for me, I would say is the easiest way to kind of introduce that.”

Read More: WTA Finals: Iga Swiatek and Coco Gauff are finishing up-and-down seasons with new coaches

We’re at the mid-point of this year’s Finals. There have been four days of play, and all eight women have finished two matches. Here are five thoughts on what we’ve seen so far.

Barbora Krejcikova rises again

Just when you start wondering, “Whatever happened to Barbora Krejcikova?” she pops back up with her best tennis. After spending most of the first seven years of her singles career in the qualifiers, she won Roland Garros in 2021. After melting back into semi-obscurity for three years after that, she won Wimbledon this summer. Now, after winning just one match since that final, and just 20 for the season, she’s showing us her best stuff again in Riyadh. The Czech was up a set and two breaks against Iga Swiatek before losing her first match, but she bounced back to beat Jessica Pegula in her second.

Watching Krejcikova, you can see why she’s unbeatable at times, and why she can’t stay that way for long. She plays some of the boldest tennis anywhere, taking balls early and off the bounce, cutting off the angle and attacking out of the corner with her forehand, sliding her backhand drop shot a millimeter over the net. The only negative about watching her is her wayward service toss: She may be the first player to make me wish there were a rule against throwing the ball up and catching it.

When Krejcikova is clicking, she can play rings around just about anybody. Let’s see how long she can keep clicking this time.

Jessica Pegula’s body language tells all

The debate is an old one: Does body language mean anything? Do expressions of negativity on court lead to worse play? Most of us would say yes, that success and failure are self-fulfilling prophecies. But then there’s the case of Andy Murray, the man who moaned his way to No. 1.

You might say that Pegula’s story is similar to Murray’s. When she starts to miss, her shoulders slump, and she looks as if it’s all she can do to drag herself from one side of the court in between points. Yet she’s a Top 5 player, so how much does it matter?

In her two two straight-set defeats in Riyadh, Pegula’s results lined up perfectly with her demeanor. Against Gauff and Krejickova, Pegula resigned to things not working out. And they didn’t.

The American has had a very good second half of the season, and the fairly fast hard court in Riyadh seemed like would suit her. But her 0-4 record in sets means she won’t be moving on to the semis.

Elena Rybakina has a smile—for 2025

It seemed like it had been a long time since we’d seen Elena Rybakina smile. She’s obviously not big on it; she stays pretty stone-faced even when she wins big titles. But the last half of 2024 hasn’t been been a happy time for her, career-wise. She split with her longtime coach, pulled out of multiple events with illnesses or injuries, and has played just two matches—and won just one—since Wimbledon.

On the surface, Rybakina’s Riyadh campaign didn’t go much better. She lost to Jasmine Paolini and Zheng Qinwen and was eliminated. But this time the news wasn’t all bad. She also announced that she’ll be working with Goran Ivanisevic in 2025, and she flashed s smile as she said it. The fit is promising: Goran was a power server and Wimbledon winner like Rybakina; he has worked with the best of the best in Novak Djokovic in recent years; and he’s a guy who can make anyone smile.

WATCH: Coco Gauff stuns Iga Swiatek at WTA Finals, advances into semifinals | MATCH POINT

Coco Gauff improves to 2-11

Gauff and Iga Swiatek both arrived in Riyadh with new coaches, ready to close out distinctly up-and-down seasons. But that was about all they had in common when they met on Tuesday. Gauff was coming in having won 10 of her last 11 matches, while Swiatek’s last event was the US Open, and she hadn’t won a tournament since Roland Garros.

In other words, if Gauff was ever going to get her second win—against 11 losses—over the Pole, today was a good day to make it happen. The fact that the match was played on a hard court, rather than Swiatek’s favored clay, didn’t hurt.

While Gauff’s performance was hardly perfect—she double faulted 11 times—it was still better than Swiatek’s. After some scratchy moments and a few angry swipes of her racquet on the court, Gauff prevailed 6-3, 6-4, and clinched a spot in the semifinals.

The results was probably more about Swiatek’s rust than anything else. She couldn’t find the court when she needed to at the end. But it’s still a major win for Gauff going into next season. While Iga gave her plenty of freebies, Gauff won points by changing speeds and trajectories, especially with her forehand, and she showed that she can survive a temporary breakdown in her serve and still get a win over her nemesis.

Aryna Sabalenka stamps her name on 2024

Sabalenka has been a virtual co-No. 1 with Swiatek for the last three seasons, but you wouldn’t know it from the year-end rankings. That finally changed on Tuesday: When Swiatek lost to Gauff, Sabalenka clinched her first year-end No. 1 spot. With that honor, her two major titles, and her wins at two other WTA 1000s, she’s the clear player of the year for 2024.

Sabalenka hasn’t backed her way in, either. She hasn’t dropped a set in her wins over Zheng and Paolini in Riyadh. Which makes her the favorite to do something else she has never done: Win the WTA Finals.

More interesting, perhaps, is what Sabalenka’s second-half revival portends for the WTA next year. Since the start of 2022, when she tore off 37 straight wins, Swiatek has been the face of the tour, while Sabalenka has stayed a half-notch below her on the totem pole. A great player, but not the first person you thought of when you thought of women’s tennis. Is she on her way to becoming that in 2025?

More: How to watch the WTA Finals from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Tennis Channel and T2