With the WTA Finals of Singapore being just few weeks away, there are still four places to assign to confirm the final 8 that will compete in the year-end championships. With Serena Williams out of the game for the rest of the season, the 9th spot in the race becomes enough to book a ticket for Singapore. At the moment Flavia Pennetta holds that place, but can she be sure to qualify now that she lost at the China Open?
Despite the race and ranking counting should follow a prescribed numeric pattern, it is hard to find websites agreeing on the updated standings for the race to the finals in Singapore. How many points are enough? Who still does have a chance and who is out? All of this will be solved thanks to the hard work of the entire Ubi Tennis team, both in Italy and the United States.
If the WTA race and its standings are growing in confusion, and therefore in further excitement, we are here to tell you exactly what to expect from now until the very last few tournaments left in the season are played. We are very close to determine who the final 8 women booking a ticket to Singapore will be, and here is why.
Let us first of all take a closer look at the updated version of the WTA Race to the Finals as of October 8th:
1 Serena Williams 9945
2 Simona Halep 5790
3 Maria Sharapova 4322
4 Garbine Muguruza 3726
5 Petra Kvitova 3491
6 Angelique Kerber 3330
7 Lucie Safarova 3221
8 Agnieszka Radwanska 3170
9 Flavia Pennetta 3153
10 Carla Suarez Navarro 3030
11 Venus Williams 2982
12 Karolina Pliskova 2950
13 Belinda Bencic 2900
14 Timea Bacsinszky 2698
15 Roberta Vinci 2655
17 Sara Errani 2525
19 Ana Ivanovic 2441
Garbine Muguruza has now officially qualified, after beating Lucic-Baroni (despite a racquet smash momentum). So far three players have qualified: Simona Halep, Maria Sharapova and Garbine Muguruza, considering how the first to qualify, Serena Williams, is officially out of the games.
THOSE WHO ARE OUT
Three players in this chart are already sure they will not compete in Singapore:
No.16 Caroline Wozniacki
No.18 Madison Keys
No.20 Elina Svitolina
To make it easier, we have removed their three names in the final list.
THE MAXIMUM POINTS
Let us now take a look at the maximum points the other 15 players still left in the game can reach from now, playing until the very end to qualify for Singapore. There are only 5 tournaments left to be played in the WTA season at this point. Three of these tournaments will be International Level events, being it Hong Kong, Linz and Tianjin, all to be played next week. The WTA Premier Event of Moscow and the International tournament of Luxembourg (which will not be valid for the race) are going to be played the week after.
International tournaments award 280 points to the final winner. The premier tournaments award 470 points to the champion instead.
The following ranking shows the maximum points the 13 players left in the game can reach playing those tournaments. The points are calculating accounting the current points, plus the maximum points they can win in Beijing and the other tournaments they will be playing in, minus the points that will have to be taken off (the only tournaments that are counted in the race are the 4 Slams, the 4 Premier Mandatory, the two best Premier 5 results, the 6 best following results).
Kerber 4570 [3330+ 785+280 (Hong Kong) + 470 (Moscow) – 295 points to take off]
Radwanska 4505 [3170+785+280 (Tianjin) + 470 (Moscow) -200]
Kvitova 3960 [3491+470 (Moscow)-1]
Safarova 3690 [3221+470 (Moscow) -1]
Errani 3490 [2525+785+280 (Linz) – 100]
Bacsinszky 3483 [2698+785]
Pennetta 3432 [3153+280 (Tianjin) – 1]
Suarez 3400 [3030+470 (Moscow) -100]
Williams 3261 [2982+280-1]
Ivanovic 3226 [2441+785]
Pliskova 3020 [2950+280 Tianjin-105]
Vinci 2905 [2655+280 (Linz) -30]
Bencic 2900 [Hasn’t entered any tournament]
Unless they request a last-minute wild card, the last three players in this chart have no chance to reach Flavia Pennetta as 9th in the race. Roberta Vinci has entered Luxembourg and thus can’t ask for a Wild Card for Moscow and is officially out of the games.
Petra Kvitova is in a very curios position. The Czech is 5th in the race with 3491 points. Looking at the tournaments other players have entered, Petra can only be surpassed by 3 players: Kerber, Radwanska and Safarova. In fact, she should already be qualified.
But the tournament of Moscow still has to assign 2 Wild Cards for the main draw. One has already been given to Agnieszka Radwanska. Another was reserved for Caroline Wozniacki, who is already out of the games and thus won’t need it anymore. The tournament could then offer the remaining two invitations to 2 players among Pennetta, Venus Williams and Pliskova. This way the Russian tournament would then allow two more players with a chance to pass Kvitova and possibly take her spot in the race.
If Moscow was to assign the Wild Cards to Venus and Pennetta, they could both be overtaking Kvitova. That would happen if Venus were to win the tournament (3261+470-60 she would get to 3671> than 3491) beating Pennetta in the final (3432+305-1=3736, again > than 3491).
That seems highly improbable…
Special Thanks to the incredible Ubi Tennis Italian team: Ciro Battifarano, Silvia Berna, Claudio Gilardelli, Marco Lauria & Roberto Salerno
