Talk About Tennis 2.0

Tournament: WTA Finals Riyadh
Dates: November 1 - November 8, 2025
Location: RIYADH, SAUDI ARABIA
Total Financial Commitment: $15,500,000
Surface: Hard (Indoor)

Aryna Sabalenka
Qualified: July 8
Best WTA Finals outing: Final (2022)
Last year's result: Semi-finals


Iga Swiatek
Qualified: August 17
Best WTA Finals outing: Winner (2023)
Last year's result: Round-robin stage


Coco Gauff
Qualified: September 30
Best WTA Finals outing: Winner (2024)
Last year's result: Winner


Amanda Anisimova
First-time participant
Qualified: October 2
Best WTA Finals outing: N/A
Last year's result: DNQ


Madison Keys
Qualified: October 2
Best WTA Finals outing: Round-robin stage (2016)
Last year's result: DNQ


Jessica Pegula
Qualified: October 13
Best WTA Finals outing: Final (2023)
Last year's result: Round-robin stage


Jasmine Paolini
Qualified: October 18
Best WTA Finals outing: Round-robin stage (2024)
Last year's result: Round-robin stage


Elena Rybakina
Qualified: October 24
Best WTA Finals outing: Round-robin stage (2023 / 2024)
Last year's result: Round-robin stage

Alternates
Mirra Andreeva
Ekaterina Alexandrova


https://sports.yahoo.com/article/eight- ... 53390.html

Singles Draw

Stefanie Graff Group

BLR A. Sabalenka (1)

USA C. Gauff (3)

USA J. Pegula (5)

ITA J. Paolini (8)


Serena Williams Group

POL I. Swiatek (2)

USA A. Anisimova (4)

KAZ E. Rybakina (6)

USA M. Keys (7)

Doubles Draw

Martina Navratilova Group

ITA S. Errani/ITA J. Paolini (1)

RUS V. Kudermetova/BEL E. Mertens (4)

TPE S. Hsieh/LAT J. Ostapenko (6)

USA A. Muhammad/NED D. Schuurs (8)

Liezel Huber Group

CZE K. Siniakova/USA T. Townsend (2)

CAN G. Dabrowski NZL E. Routliffe (3)

RUS M. Andreeva/RUS D. Shnaider (5)

HUN T. Babos/BRA L. Stefani (7)

I like Amanda's chances.

I am boycotting

I'm on the fence.
If the women are not boycotting this event, I don't know why I should. But I am not certainly going to wake up at some ungodly hour to watch this.

Honestly I didn't want to even post this. I'm not going to watch.

Half the field is American. I'm curious what was told to them that they all seem to think it's all fine over there.

It will be all fine there for them.

I am myself quite unsure about the ethics of a boycott.. on the one hand, they are effective, sometimes but then do the ends justify the means? Generally not, so why here? Is it right to treat a bunch of people, the Saudis, as pariahs.. when they individually may not have done anything wrong? Lumping them all together and tarring them with the same brush as their government? How would I like to be held responsible for what my government does? surely not, not n every case anyway...

In any case it's my understanding that Saudi Arabia has changed a fair bit lately. Are they really so much more conservative and/or oppressive than Qatar these days? Nobody is proposing to boycott them...

This is an awkwardly staged photo in what looks like an elevator vestibule.

Funny how often those photos wind up so.. awkward.

There's probably a "behind the scenes" one which would probably be much better.