By Chris Oddo | @TheFanChild | Monday September 20, 2021
Three top players have qualified for the 2021 WTA Finals.
World No.1 Ashleigh Barty, World No.2 Aryna Sabalenka and World No.3 Barbora Krejcikova have each qualified for the eight-player singles event, which will be held in Guadalajara, Mexico, from 10-17 November.
25-year-old Barty is the defending WTA Finals champion after taking the title in Shenzhen, which came with a record $4.42 million payout.
Sabalenka, 23, is the first woman from Belarus to qualify for the WTA Finals in singles since Victoria Azarenka in 2013.
Krecjikova, 25 and ranked 5th, will make her debut in singles and also join the doubles field alongside partner Katerina Siniakova. She will be the first player to contest both singles and doubles at the prestigious WTA finals since Karolina Pliskova in 2016.
Japan’s Shuko Aoyama and Ena Shibahara have earned their career first qualification at the WTA Finals, becoming the first Japanese players to qualify in doubles since Ai Sugiyama in 2008, when she reached the semifinal stage alongside Katarina Srebotnik.