Garbiñe Muguruza and Paula Badosa already know who their rivals will be in the WTA Finals in Guadalajara (Mexico), the tournament that brings together the eight best tennis players of the season on the women’s circuit and which is held again two years later after its cancellation in 2020 due to the pandemic. This morning the draw was held for the group stage that will define the semifinals before the grand final for the title.
The ceremony, in which the players wore their best clothes, was held at the Municipal Palace of Zapopán and It has been full of nods to the roots of Mexico, as reflected in the group names of the singles and doubles tournaments named after ancient cities in pre-Columbian Mexico.
The draw brought different fates for Garbiñe Muguruza and Paula Badosa, the two Spanish tennis players who will compete for the title of ‘Maestra’. Badosa has been framed in the Chichén Itzá group, where the first favorite for the title, the Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka, the Greek Maria Sakkari (fourth) and the Polish Iga Swiatek will be measured.
For her part, Muguruza will be part of the Teotihuacán group, where she will face the Czech Barbora Krejcikova and where she will seek to avenge the defeat suffered in the second round of the US Open; against the also Czech Karolina Pliskova and against the Estonian Anett Kontaveit, the last tennis player to win her place in the tournament. This group will open the competition this Wednesday with the matches between Barbora Krejcikova and Anett Kontaveit (14:00 local time, 21:00 Spanish time) and the debut of Garbiñe Muguruza against Karolina Pliskova, in the first match of the night shift not before 19:30 local time (02:30 in the morning from Wednesday to Thursday Spanish time).
Krejcikova also knows her rivals in doubles
This morning there was also the draw for the groups of the WTA Finals in the doubles category, where the Czech Barbora Krejcikova will be the only player to participate in the singles as well as in the doubles.
The Czech, who will be paired with her compatriot Katerina Siniakova (they are the first favorites to the title), already knows her rivals in the search for the doubles title. Krejcikova and Siniakova have been framed in the El Tajín group, where they will face Su-Wei Hsieh and Elise Mertens, Alexa Guarachi and Desirae Krawczyk and Sharon Fichman and Giuliana Olmos.
For its part, the Japanese duo formed by Shuko Aoyama and Ena Shibahara start as the rivals to beat in the Tenochtitlán group, where they will face the pairs formed by Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Demi Schuurs, Samantha Stosur and Shuai Zhang, and Darija Jural and Andreja Klepac.