Elena Rybakina clinched the final spot in this year’s WTA Finals on Friday following her quarter-final win at the Pan Pacific Open.
Rybakina, who is the second seed in Tokyo, defeated Canada’s Victoria Mboko 6-3, 7-6(4), in her latest match. She is currently on a six-match winning streak on the Tour after capturing her second title of 2025 at the Ningbo Open last week. Her year-to-date win-loss record currently stands at 51-19.
“It was a very difficult match against Victoria — the last time, it was the same battle,” wtatennis.com quoted Rybakina as saying afterwards. “I’m very happy that today I managed to win in two sets. In the second set, we were going so close, both serving really well, so I’m glad that I could push a little bit more in the tiebreak and win in two sets.
“I’m happy that my serve was working pretty well … on the return, I was trying to move a bit position, but again she was serving so well that it was really difficult. Even when I caught the ball on the racquet, it was still too hard to put it in. It was a very tough, very close match, but I’m happy with the result.”
The 26-year-old is chasing after her first WTA title on Japanese soil and her 11th overall. She is the highest-ranked player remaining in the draw following the late withdrawal of Jasmine Paolini.
Rybakina’s recent surge means she has qualified for the season-ending WTA Finals in Saudi Arabia, which features the eight highest-ranked players. The tournament has a total prize money commitment of $15,500,000.
“It’s great to qualify and play some more matches, especially against top players,” she said.
“Last week I was focusing one match at a time and I knew that to qualify it’s going to take a long road.”
It will be the third year in a row that Rybakina has played in the WTA Finals. She is yet to progress beyond the round-robin stage and has won just two out of six matches played at the event.
This year’s edition will begin on November 1st.
List of qualified players
- Aryna Sabalenka BLR
- Iga Swiatek POL
- Coco Gauff USA
- Amanda Anisimova USA
- Madison Keys USA
- Jessica Pegula USA
- Jasmine Paolini ITA
- Elena Rybakina KAZ
