WTA Finals: World No.1 Iga Swiatek to lead Tracy Austin Group

Texas (US), Oct 29 (IANS) The stage is set for the 2022 WTA Finals, as the groups for the round-robin matches of the prestigious year-ending championships were drawn on Friday in Fort Worth, Texas.

Each singles player or doubles team will face off against all of the other participants in their respective group during the first six days of the tournament. At the end of the round-robin matches, the top two players or teams from each group will advance to the single-elimination semifinals.

World No.1 Iga Swiatek, the winner of eight titles this season including Roland Garros and the US Open, leads the Tracy Austin Group. Austin is a former World No.1 in singles -- the four group names are inspired by four legendary American champions.

Swiatek will have a rematch of the Roland Garros final against No.4 seed Coco Gauff during round-robin play. The two youngest players in the field, 21-year-old Swiatek and 18-year-old Gauff, have both landed in the Tracy Austin Group.

No.6 seed Caroline Garcia, winner of three titles this year, and No.8 seed Daria Kasatkina, a two-time titlist in 2022, round out the Tracy Austin Group.

No.2 seed Ons Jabeur, who reached her first Grand Slam finals at Wimbledon and the US Open this year, tops the Nancy Richey Group. No.3 seed Jessica Pegula, who won her first WTA 1000 title in Guadalajara last week, was also drawn into the Nancy Richey Group.

No.5 seed Maria Sakkari and No.7 seed Aryna Sabalenka, both of whom are making their second straight appearances in the WTA Finals singles field, complete the Nancy Richey Group.

In the doubles field, No.1-seeded Czechs Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova lead the Rosie Casals Group. Krejcikova and Siniakova won three of the four Grand Slam titles this year, and they completed the Career Golden Slam with their US Open title.

No.3 seeds Gauff and Pegula are in the same group as Krejcikova and Siniakova. Gauff and Pegula are the two players this year who have qualified in both singles and doubles.

The Pam Shriver Group is headed by No.2 seeds Gabriela Dabrowski and Giuliana Olmos.

The group stage of singles and doubles play begins on Monday, October 31 at the Dickies Arena in Fort Worth. The semifinals will be played on Sunday, November 6, and the singles and doubles finals will be on Monday, November 7.