Daria Kasatkina has not been happy with the new WTA Finals rule, which saves one qualifying spot for a Grand Slam winner who finishes outside the top eight in the WTA Race.
The players who finish in the top seven spots in the WTA Race are automatically eligible to compete in the season-ending tournament, according to the 2024 WTA Rulebook.
The highest-ranked Grand Slam winner of the current year who is 8-20 on the Race to the Finals Leaderboard and has not yet qualified is then given one spot. The player ranked eight or lower will be given the final spot if no major champion who was ranked between ninth and twentieth did not make it to the WTA Finals.
After placing ninth in the WTA Race and having to substitute for the injured Pegula in the final group match against Iga Swiatek, Kasatkina travelled to Riyadh as an alternate.
Despite losing to Swiatek 6-1, 6-0, the world No. 9 decried the new regulation that was only implemented this year.
She talked about it and said: “In my opinion, the WTA Race is the WTA Race. So it’s about how many points you earn during the year. If you win a Grand Slam, you already have what you achieved. You won the Grand Slam, points, money, glory, everything. Here it’s the WTA Race. So I think in this scenario, it has to go by points.”
Darya Kasatkina in 2024
Ranked no.9, Kasatkina played her last match on the 7th of November when she capitulated to world no.2 Iga Swiatek 6-1 6-0
in the round robin in Riyadh (draw).Presently, during this year the Russian achieved a compiled 40-23 record. Kasatkina has won 2 titles in 2024 in Eastbourne and Ningbo. The Russian was the finalist in Adelaide, Abu Dhabi, Charleston and Seoul.
Darya Kasatkina |
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Darya Kasatkina in 2024
Currently the world no.9, the Russian played her last match on the 7th of November when she lost to world no.2 Iga Swiatek 6-1 6-0 in the round robin in Riyadh (draw).
At present, during this year the Russian has achieved an overall 40-23 record. Darya has won 2 titles in 2024 in Eastbourne and Ningbo. Darya was the finalist in Adelaide, Abu Dhabi, Charleston and Seoul.
Darya Kasatkina |
| Embed from Getty Images |