How much prize money did Iga Swiatek, Elena Rybakina & Jessica Pegula win at WTA Finals 2024 despite group stage elimination?
Iga Swiatek has earned a prize money of $1,035,000 from the WTA Finals while Elena Rybakina will pocket $585,000. Both players were knocked out in the round-robin phase of the year-end tournament in Riyadh.
The top eight players of the WTA season are locked in an intense battle with each other to grab the year-ending honors. However, Iga Swiatek, Elena Rybakina, and Jessica Pegula have already been eliminated from the competition in the round-robin stage.
The WTA Finals this year has a lucrative purse, offering a total prize money pool of $15,250,000 which is a significant rise from the $ 9,000,000 that was offered as the total prize money in the 2023 edition.
This year, each player received $ 335,000 as an appearance fee for playing all of their round-robin matches. Each round-robin match win granted a further $ 350,000 to the player.
Iga Swiatek won two of her three round-robin matches this year, winning against Barbora Krejcikova, and Daria Kasatkina but lost to Coco Gauff. Combining her appearance fees and group stage wins, the Pole's total earnings from the event stand at $ 1,035,000.
On the other hand, Elena Rybakina could only win one match against Aryna Sabalenka. The Kazakh's earned prize money stands at $ 585,000.
Jessica Pegula played only two matches, before withdrawing from the competition due to injury. As a result, she received $275,000 rather than the full $335,000 appearance fees. That was her total earnings as she lost both her matches to Krejcikova and Gauff. Daria Kasatkina stepped up as an alternate to face Iga Swiatek in the group stage match. The Ukrainian lost but earned $ 140,000 as an appearance fee.
Jasmine Paolini won only one match against Rybakina in the tournament and lost to Aryna Sabalenka and Zheng Qinwen. As a result, the Italian's total earnings from Riyadh stand at $ 685,000.
Iga Swiatek loses out on year-end No. 1 ranking to Aryna Sabalenka
After finishing as the year-end No.1 in the previous two seasons, Iga Swiatek had to give up her top spot on the rankings to Aryna Sabalenka this year. The Polish player had a great first half of the 2024 season, winning four titles at the WTA 1000 level and winning her fifth Major title at the French Open.
Despite winning the Australian Open, Sabelanka could not win any more tournaments in the first half of the season. However, the Belarusian played some of her best tennis during the second half of the season, winning her third Major at the US Open along with WTA 1000 titles in Cincinnati and Wuhan. This propelled her to the top spot on the rankings, displacing Swiatek.
Now that the Pole has been eliminated from the WTA finals, Sabalenka will look to use the opportunity to win the event and maximize the distance between the duo in terms of points by the end of the year.