WTA Year-End Finals: Sabalenka Starts Strong with a Victory, Pegula Avenges Against Gauff

On November 2nd local time, the first round of the 2025 Riyadh WTA Year-End Finals began in the women's singles Graf group and women's doubles Huber group.

Sabalenka

The women's singles world No.1 Sabalenka made her first appearance in this event, defeating the 8th seed Paolini 6-3, 6-1 in 70 minutes to claim a successful opening match. This season, Sabalenka and Paolini faced each other in the Miami and Stuttgart semifinals, with Sabalenka winning both times. In this match, Sabalenka established an early lead in both sets, hitting 11 aces throughout the match and winning in straight sets. This victory marked Sabalenka’s 60th WTA Tour main draw singles win this season, a career milestone she achieved for the first time.

Sabalenka was the runner-up at the 2022 WTA Year-End Finals, but in the past two years, she lost in the semifinals to the eventual champions (Swiatek in 2023 and Gauff in 2024). This year, she aims to surpass her best performance. After the match, Sabalenka said, “I’m not focusing on the group stage; I treat this tournament like a regular tour event. To win the title, you have to win five matches. Every time I step on the court, I give it my all as if it’s the last match. So, I just try to play my best and fight for every point.”

Pegula

Another singles match featured two American players, with 5th seed Pegula battling for 2 hours and 12 minutes to defeat defending champion and 3rd seed Gauff 6-3, 6-7(4), 6-2. The two had met in the Wuhan final just over two weeks ago, where Gauff won in straight sets to claim the title. However, in this match, Gauff’s serve was inconsistent, and Pegula seized the opportunity to end her three-match losing streak at the Year-End Finals.

In her last eight wins, Pegula has always prevailed in three-set matches. Speaking about this, she explained, “I played well in the first set, and her serve wasn’t great, but a competitor like Coco will definitely adjust her tactics, which she did in the second set. That set had many ups and downs, but I’m used to such situations. I’ve played many three-set matches with lots of fluctuations, so I try not to think about the match length, my errors, or missed chances, and just focus on my strategy. I believe I executed my tactics well in the third set and stayed focused.”

In doubles from the Huber group, the 2nd seeds Siniakova/Townsend defeated the 7th seeds Babos/Stefani 6-2, 3-6, 10-6; the 3rd seeds Dabrowski/Luttrief beat the 5th seeds Andrejeva/Schneider 6-3, 7-6(2), both securing winning starts.

Complete schedule for November 3rd

(Written and edited by: Dato, Photos: Visual China)