LONDON – Poland’s Iga Swiatek and Spaniard Paula Badosa will make their WTA Finals debut next month after booking their spots for the season-ending tournament in Guadalajara, Mexico, the women’s tour said.
Swiatek, last year’s French Open champion, made at least the fourth round of each of the four majors in 2021 while also winning two WTA titles this season.
The 20-year-old will be the first Polish woman to play the WTA Finals since Agnieszka Radwanska in 2016.
Badosa, 23, has had a breakthrough season in 2021 and won titles in Belgrade and Indian Wells while also reaching the quarter-finals at Roland Garros for her best Grand Slam performance.
Badosa has reached a career-high ranking of 13th and will be joined in the November 10-17 tournament in Guadalajara by compatriot and two-time major winner Garbine Muguruza.
The Finals, contested by the world’s top eight singles players and eight doubles teams, was moved out of China’s Shenzhen after last year’s event was cancelled due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Aryna Sabalenka, Barbora Krejcikova, Karolina Pliskova and Maria Sakkari had earlier qualified in the singles field but world number one Australian Ash Barty’s withdrawal has opened up a spot.
Barty won the Finals when it was last held in Shenzhen in November 2019 but decided not to travel to Mexico due to quarantine issues on return in her country and to focus on the build-up to January’s Australian Open.
The final spot for Guadalajara is set to be a shootout between Tunisian Ons Jabeur and Anett Kontaveit of Estonia, who won the WTA 500 event in Moscow.
World number eight Jabeur is ahead in the race but an elbow injury forced her to withdraw from her opening match in the Kremlin Cup and next week’s Courmayeur Ladies Open in Italy.
Elsewhere, unvaccinated players will be allowed to compete at the Australian Open but must do 14 days in quarantine, according to a leaked WTA email, although a government official insisted the matter was “not settled”.
The rules would also likely apply to the men’s tour, leaving the door open for world number one Novak Djokovic to defend his title at Melbourne Park in January.
The email to players from the women’s governing body was leaked to New York Times tennis writer Ben Rothenberg, who posted it on Twitter, and contradicts officials’ earlier statements implying unvaccinated players would not be granted visas.
The email said that players fully inoculated against coronavirus would not have to quarantine or remain in bio-secure bubbles, enjoying “complete freedom of movement”.
Unvaccinated players can come to Australia but would have to undergo two weeks’ mandatory hotel quarantine and submit to regular testing, it stated.
“We feel the need to reach out to you all to clear up false and misleading information that has recently been spread by other parties about the conditions the players will be forced to endure at next year’s Australian Open,” the email read.
“Because Victoria’s vaccination rate will hit 80 percent at the end of the week and 90 percent next month, it has been confirmed that conditions for players at the Australian Open will improve significantly.”
Vaccinated players could arrive any time after December 1, must have a negative test within 72 hours of departing for Australia and test again within 24 hours of arrival. Otherwise, there will be no restrictions, the email said.
Tennis Australia told AFP it was “optimistic that we can hold the Australian Open as close to pre-pandemic conditions as possible”.
“We are working with the Victorian and federal governments on the conditions for players at Australian Open 2022 and look forward to having the details confirmed soon,” it added.
The apparent move to allow unvaccinated players into Australia contradicts comments from senior government officials last week, including Immigration Minister Alex Hawke, who said “every visitor to Australia will need to be double vaccinated”.
Victoria state Sports Minister Martin Pakula insisted Monday that the vaccination requirements were “not settled yet”.
“We’re still talking to the Commonwealth (national government) about whether the rule for international unvaccinated arrivals is either 14 days quarantine or they’re not coming into the country at all,” he said in response to the leaked email.
Nine-time Australian Open champion Djokovic is one of many players who have refused to share their vaccination status, casting doubt over whether he will defend his title.
