2023 WTA Finals Preview: Top-ranked Sabalenka Is the Player to Beat in Cancun

Americans Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula Are in the Singles and Doubles Fields

The eight-player field is set for the 2023 WTA Finals Cancun with Aryna Sabalenka the top seed and Americans Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula in the field.

Six of the eight tennis players from the 2022 WTA Finals are back in the field but defending champion Caroline Garcia is not one of them. With Petra Kvitova and Elina Svitolina also not qualifying, no former women’s singles champion will be in the field.

The tournament begins on Sunday at the Plaza Quintana Roo in Cancun, Mexico.

The field is broken into two groups of four and round-robin play will determine the four semifinalists.

Gauff and Pegula are the top seeds in doubles and are the only players in both the singles and doubles draw.

The next Grand Slam event is the Australian Open. Iga Swiatek (+300) has the best odds to win the title in Melbourne followed by Sabalenka (+450) and Elena Rybakina (+600).

Here is a look at the singles field.

No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka

Sabalenka began her surge to the top of the rankings by winning the Australian Open title. She advanced to at least the semifinals in the other three Grand Slams to move by Swiatek and into the top spot in the WTA rankings.

Sabalenka’s bid to win a second Grand Slam singles title in 2023 ended with a loss to Coco Gauff at the US Open championship match.

She also won in Madrid, topping Swiatek in the finals and the week before winning at the Australian Open, she won in Adelaide.

When looking at the tennis predictions, it is hard to pick against the top-ranked player in the world. She reached the title match in the 2022 WTA Finals.

Sabalenka is looking to become the first No. 1 seed to win the WTA Finals singles title since Ash Barty in 2019.

No. 2 Iga Swiatek

The bar is set pretty high when winning five singles titles and 63 matches is considered a disappointing year.

She is coming off a win at the China Open that included a straight-set win over Gauff in the semifinals.

Swiatek won the French Open but fell in the Round of 16 at the Australian Open and the US Open.

She is 9-8 against the other players in the 2023 WTA Finals Cancun.

Swiatek lost to Sabalenka in three sets in the semifinals at the 2022 WTA Finals. Never count out Swiatek even if she stumbled a bit in some big matches in 2023.

No. 3 Coco Gauff

The 19-year-old Gauff made plenty of headlines during her run to the US Open title as she won in three sets against Sabalenka.

A win over Swiatek was part of her run to the Cincinnati title heading into the US Open and she also won in Washington as Gauff rebounded nicely from a first-round loss at Wimbledon.

Gauff did not win a set in her three singles matches at the 2022 WTA Finals.

No. 4 Elena Rybakina

Rybakina posted a win over Sabalenka in Beijing before losing in the semifinals so she has to be feeling pretty good about how she is playing.

When looking at the WTA scores, she stunned Swiatek at the Round of 16 at the Australian Open to get her 2023 season off to a strong start.

She took the opening set in the Wimbledon quarterfinals to Jabeur before fading in the final two sets.

Her best showings came when she won the Rome title in May and at Indian Wells with back-to-back wins over Swiatek and Sabalenka. She is somebody to keep an eye on at the 2023 WTA Finals Cancun.

No. 5 Jessica Pegula

Pegula got some matches in at the recent WTA 250 event in Seoul, dropping one set on the way to winning the title. She also had a recent run to the title match in Tokyo.

Pegula picked up wins over Gauff and Swiatek on her way to taking the championship in Montreal.

She didn’t advance past the quarterfinals in any of the four Grand Slam titles so this is a chance to come up huge on the biggest stage.

Along with Gauff, Pegula is looking to become the first American player to win the WTA Finals singles title since Serena Williams won the final of her five titles in 2014.

No. 6 Marketa Vondrousova

Vondrousova was ranked 42nd before her surprising run to win the Wimbledon title.

She is 10-4 since and that included a quarterfinal appearance at the US Open.

Vondrousova was outside the top 100 in the WTA rankings before advancing to the Round of 16 at back-to-back events at Indian Wells and Miami. A strong showing in Cancun would be the capped on a breakthrough season.

No. 7 Ons Jabeur

Jabeur’s 2023 season would look much different if she closed out Beatriz Haddad Maia in the French Open quarterfinals and followed up three-set wins over Rybakina and Sabalenka by taking care of business versus Vondrousova in the Wimbledon final.

Jabeur won the WTA 250 event in Ningbo, China.

Jabeur was the No. 2 seed at the 2022 WTA Finals. However, a three-set loss to Sabalenka kept her from advancing to the semifinals.

No. 9 Maria Sakkari

Sakkari got into the field after Karolina Muchova pulled out.

Sakkari was eliminated in the first round of the last three Grand Slam events. She did reach the finals in Washington and won the Guadalajara Open in September.

With her recent results, it is hard to have too much confidence about Sakkari’s chances in Cancun. Of course, the same could have been said about No. 6 seed Garcia in last year’s event.

For tennis betting news, odds analysis, and more, visit Point Spreads Sports Magazine.

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