Pegula-Rybakina, Sabalenka-Anisimova, Doubles: Semifinals Day this Friday at the WTA Finals

With the group stage concluded, the serious action intensifies in Riyadh starting this Friday with the semifinals in both singles and doubles.

Who will win the WTA Finals? In singles, only four players remain in contention to dream of lifting the women's Masters trophy on Saturday afternoon. Eliminated in the group stage, Coco Gauff will not be the first player to defend her title in this tournament since Serena Williams (2012, 2013, 2014).

Starting at 4:00 PM French time, the first semifinal will take place between Jessica Pegula and Elena Rybakina. The American leads their head-to-head 4 wins to 1, and this will be their first meeting since the 2023 WTA Finals (7-5, 6-2 for Pegula in the group stage).

Following that, the second semifinal will be equally enticing between World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka and Amanda Anisimova, in a rematch of the US Open final.
The latter leads their head-to-head 6 wins to 4, and this will be their fourth meeting in 2025 (Sabalenka leads 2 wins to 1). The Belarusian player has never won the WTA Finals and hopes to finally get her hands on the trophy, three years after her defeat in the final against Caroline Garcia.

The semifinals of the doubles tournament are also on the schedule. After the eliminations of the pairs Sara Errani/Jasmine Paolini and Gabriela Dabrowski/Erin Routliffe (the defending champions), the tournament opens up for the four pairs still in contention.

Early in the day, the first match will feature Jelena Ostapenko/Su-wei Hsieh against Timea Babos/Luisa Stefani. Closing out today's program, the pair Veronika Kudermetova/Elise Mertens will face off against Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend.