By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Tuesday November 9, 2021

 

Six debutantes highlight a WTA Finals field that will be bursting with fresh energy in Guadalajara.

Photo Source: Getty

As we prepare for the final leg of the 2021 WTA season, let's have a look at the eight singles competitors in this year's WTA Finals field in Guadalajara.



50 This is the 50th staging of the event of the WTA Finals, an event that began in 1972.

13-2 Karolina Pliskova’s lifetime record against the members of her group in Guadalajara. The Czech is 2-0 against Barbora Krejcikova, 3-0 against Anett Kontaveit and 8-2 against Garbiñe Muguruza. Pliskova and Muguruza are the only two players with prior WTA Finals experience.

11 Guadalajara is the 11th different city to host the WTA Finals. The event has been held in Boca Raton, Los Angeles, New York, Oakland, Munich, Madrid, Doha, Istanbul, Singapore and Shenzhen previously. It is slated to return to Shenzhen from 2022 to 2030.

5  Number of players that have won the title on their WTA Finals debut. Serena Williams (2001), Maria Sharapova (2004), Petra Kvitova (2011), Dominika Cibulkova (2016) and Ashleigh Barty (2019) won the title on their debut.

6 Number of players making their WTA Finals debut this year – Aryna Sabalenka, Barbora Krejcikova, Maria Sakkari, Iga Swiatek, Paula Badosa, Anett Kontaveit.

21 The length, in matches, of the longest WTA Finals win streak. It was compiled by Martina Navratilova, who won 21 straight matches in winning 5 titles between 1983 and 1986 and reaching the quarterfinals in 1987.

2000 For the first time in 21 years, more than one Spaniard is participating in the same WTA Finals field – Muguruza and Badosa. This year marks the first WTA Finals to feature multiple Spaniards since 2000 (Sanchez-Vicario and Conchita Martinez). A Spaniard has reached the WTA Finals championship match once in the event’s history – 1993, Sanchez-Vicario (l. Sabatini)

2  Number of players in this year’s singles field that are making history for their respective countries. Anett Kontaveit and Maria Sakkari are the first players from their country to appear in the WTA Finals.

2016: Last time a player competed in both singles and doubles at the WTA Finals. Krejcikova, who will play doubles with Katerina Siniakova, is the first to achieve the feat since Karolina Pliskova.

5  Number of years that the WTA Finals used a best-of-five sets format. Between 1984 and 1998, a best-of-five sets final was used to decide the Finals final; three finals went the distance:

1990 - Seles vs. Gabriela Sabatini (the first woman’s match in 89 years to extend to five sets since the 1901 Philadelphia Finals);
1995 – Steffi Graf vs. Anke Huber;
1996 - Graf vs. Hingis.

Six finals went to four sets (1986 - March, 1987, 1989, 1991, 1993 and 1998).

14 Players from 14 different nations have won: USA (18), GER (6), BEL (5), CZE (4), YUG (3), ARG (2), AUS (3), SUI (2), DEN (1), FRA (1), POL (1), RUS (1), SVK (1) and UKR (1).

$5,000,000 Total prize money on offer at the 2021 WTA Finals in Guadalajara, compared to $14,000,000 in Shenzhen in 2019.

33 Age of the oldest WTA Finals singles champion in history. Serena Williams (2014) is the oldest champion in WTA Finals history, while her sister Venus (37, 2017) is the oldest finalist in WTA Finals history.

16 Age of the youngest WTA Finals title winner in history. The youngest WTA Finals winner was Monica Seles in 1990 (16 years, 11 months, 16 days).

This year’s youngest competitor is 20-year-old Iga Swiatek. The oldest player is 29-year-old Karolina Pliskova. The average age of the singles field is 24.875.