Sabalenka chases a first WTA Finals title as Andreeva closes in on her No. 2 ranking
Second seed Aryna Sabalenka, the highest-ranked player left in Indian Wells after Elena Rybakina’s withdrawal, opens WTA Finals Group 2 against seventh seed Karolina Muchova on Monday. Third seed Mirra Andreeva, 179 points behind her in the rankings, then faces sixth seed Elina Svitolina.
Aryna Sabalenka, WTA Finals 2026 | © Getty / WTA
With Elena Rybakina out of the WTA Finals in Indian Wells, second seed Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus is the highest-ranked player left in the draw. She opens Group 2 on Monday against seventh seed Karolina Muchova of the Czech Republic. Third seed Mirra Andreeva of Russia then faces sixth seed Elina Svitolina of Ukraine.
The group also settles the year-end No. 2 ranking, behind Rybakina. Sabalenka has 6,485 points and Andreeva 6,306, a gap of 179, and each round-robin win is worth 200.
Andreeva and Muchova are making their debut at the event. Svitolina, champion in 2018, is the only former winner in the group.
Round robin, Monday, November 9
Local time (PT), 21:00 CET for the first match. Seeds in brackets.
Sabalenka vs Muchova opens Group 2
Sabalenka, 28, is playing her sixth consecutive WTA Finals, the first player to do so since Agnieszka Radwanska (2011-2016). She has a 12-9 record at the event and lost the final in 2022 and 2025.
She opened 2026 with the Brisbane title, then won Indian Wells and Miami back to back to complete the Sunshine Double, the fifth player to do so. She also reached the finals of the Australian Open and the US Open, losing both to Rybakina. She has not won a title since Miami in March.
“I’m super happy to be back at Indian Wells,” Sabalenka said at media day. “A lot of great memories, especially this season, getting my dog, getting engaged, winning the title.”
Muchova, 30, won her first WTA 1000 title in Doha and her first grass title in Bad Homburg this season. She also reached the Stuttgart final and her second Grand Slam final, at Wimbledon, where she lost to Linda Noskova. The run took her to a career-high No. 6.
She leads Sabalenka 3-2 in their head-to-head, the only player in the group with a winning record against her. Sabalenka won their only meeting of 2026, in the Brisbane semi-finals.
“For me and my career, the health all around, that’s been a key,” Muchova said at media day.
Andreeva vs Svitolina, debut against experience
Andreeva, 19, was first alternate at the event last year. This season she won her first Grand Slam title at Roland-Garros, the youngest champion in Paris since Monica Seles in 1992, and added titles in Adelaide and Linz. She also reached the finals in Madrid and Beijing.
Her 50 wins this season make her the youngest player to reach 50 in a year since Caroline Wozniacki in 2009. She rose to a career-high No. 3 in October.
Her week started with an off-court controversy, when Jessica Pegula was heard on a livestreamed practice calling her a “diva”.
Svitolina, 32, is back at the WTA Finals for the first time since 2019, when she lost the final to Ashleigh Barty a year after winning the title. She won titles in Auckland and Rome this season, beating Coco Gauff in the Rome final, and reached her first Australian Open semi-final. She returned to the top 10 for the first time since October 2021.
Former player Sergiy Stakhovsky is coaching her this week, as her usual coach Andrew Bettles could not travel to Indian Wells.
“It changed massively,” Svitolina said at media day. “Now the field is very different to what it was before in a game-style perspective. Everything is just much quicker, much more aggressive.”
Andreeva and Svitolina have split their two meetings. Across the group, Sabalenka leads Andreeva 4-2 and Svitolina 6-1, while Svitolina leads Muchova 3-1 and Andreeva leads Muchova 1-0.
The top two in each group reach the semi-finals, where each group winner meets the runner-up of the other group. An unbeaten champion would earn $3.37 million and 1,500 ranking points.
