The WTA Finals come to the Indian Wells Tennis Garden for the first time this year, closing the season from 8 to 15 November. The field of eight is set, the event has a new title partner, and it is a one-year stop: the championships move to an arena in Charlotte from 2027. This guide covers the dates, the field, how the round robin works, what is at stake and every champion since 2014.
Dates and venue
The FAGE WTA Finals Indian Wells run from Sunday 8 November to Sunday 15 November 2026 at the Indian Wells Tennis Garden in California, home of the BNP Paribas Open every March. The WTA lists the surface as hard court. It is the first time the season-ending championships have been held at Indian Wells, and the first time the event has been staged in the United States since Fort Worth in 2022.
FAGE was named title partner on 20 October in a deal that runs through 2029, so the event will carry the same name in Charlotte. The singles champion lifts the Billie Jean King Trophy; the doubles champions receive the Martina Navratilova Trophy.
Who qualifies
The top seven singles players and doubles teams in the PIF WTA Race qualify. The eighth place is reserved for a player or team that won a Grand Slam title in the season and is ranked eighth to 20th. The full rules are in our WTA Finals qualification explainer.
The WTA also names alternates, who travel to the event and play only if a qualifier withdraws. How the alternate role works is set out separately.
How the format works
The eight singles qualifiers are split into two groups of four and play a round robin, so every player is guaranteed three matches. The top two in each group reach the semifinals, and the semifinal winners play the final. The doubles event uses the same structure with eight teams.
The WTA confirms the draws three days before play starts. When two players finish level in a group, head-to-head decides it. In a three-way tie under the 2025 rules, the order is decided by matches played, then total sets won, then total games won.
Points and prize money
The WTA had not published 2026 figures at the time of writing. In 2025, each round-robin win was worth 200 ranking points, a semifinal win 400 and the final 500, so an undefeated champion collected 1,500 points. The points count toward the year-end rankings, which is why the year-end No. 1 is not settled until the Finals are over.
Prize money in 2025 was a record $15.5 million, with $12.4 million for singles and $3.1 million for doubles. Elena Rybakina won all five of her matches in Riyadh and collected $5.235 million, which the WTA described as the largest payout in the history of women’s sports.
Why Indian Wells, and what comes next
Riyadh was awarded the 2024, 2025 and 2026 editions in April 2024. On 1 July 2026 the WTA and the Saudi Tennis Federation announced that they had ended the arrangement a year early at the WTA’s request, and the WTA named Indian Wells as the replacement host the same day.
On 16 September the WTA announced that the Finals will be staged at the Spectrum Center in Charlotte, North Carolina, the home of the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets, from 2027 through 2029, and that it will move its global headquarters to the city. Since Singapore’s five-year run ended in 2018, the event has been held in Shenzhen, Guadalajara, Fort Worth, Cancun and Riyadh, with no edition in 2020.
Players have asked for stability. “I definitely would like to see a more permanent home for it,” Coco Gauff said when the move was announced. Jessica Pegula’s reaction was shorter: “The saga of the WTA Finals continues.”
Tickets
Tickets are sold through the official site, wtafinals.com, by session, for every day of the event from 8 to 15 November. Single-session prices published by the WTA in July started at $75 for the opening two days and rose through the week to $130 for the final day. Packages cover the full event or Championship Weekend, 14 and 15 November.
WTA Finals singles champions since 2014
- 2025, Riyadh: Elena Rybakina d. Aryna Sabalenka 6-3, 7-6 (0)
- 2024, Riyadh: Coco Gauff d. Zheng Qinwen 3-6, 6-4, 7-6 (2)
- 2023, Cancun: Iga Swiatek d. Jessica Pegula 6-1, 6-0
- 2022, Fort Worth: Caroline Garcia d. Aryna Sabalenka 7-6 (4), 6-4
- 2021, Guadalajara: Garbine Muguruza d. Anett Kontaveit 6-3, 7-5
- 2020: not held
- 2019, Shenzhen: Ashleigh Barty d. Elina Svitolina 6-4, 6-3
- 2018, Singapore: Elina Svitolina d. Sloane Stephens 3-6, 6-2, 6-2
- 2017, Singapore: Caroline Wozniacki d. Venus Williams 6-4, 6-4
- 2016, Singapore: Dominika Cibulkova d. Angelique Kerber 6-3, 6-4
- 2015, Singapore: Agnieszka Radwanska d. Petra Kvitova 6-2, 4-6, 6-3
- 2014, Singapore: Serena Williams d. Simona Halep 6-3, 6-0
Every edition from 2015 to 2025 produced a first-time champion. Steffi Graf and Serena Williams each won the singles title five times.
2026 Snapshot (as of 23 October 2026)
Singles field. Elena Rybakina (world No. 1, defending champion), Aryna Sabalenka (Indian Wells and Miami champion, runner-up in 2022 and 2025), Mirra Andreeva (Roland Garros champion), Linda Noskova (Wimbledon champion), Coco Gauff (2024 champion), Jessica Pegula (2023 runner-up), Elina Svitolina (2018 champion) and Karolina Muchova. Rybakina was the first to qualify. Sabalenka is making her sixth straight appearance; the only other player to do that since 2003 was Agnieszka Radwanska, from 2011 to 2016. Muchova qualified once before, in 2023, but withdrew injured without playing. How the last place was decided is in our report from Ningbo.
Alternates. The WTA had not named its singles alternates. Iga Swiatek has ended her season, and Marta Kostyuk retired from Ningbo with a wrist problem.
Doubles. Seven teams had qualified with one place open: Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend; Gabriela Dabrowski and Luisa Stefani; Guo Hanyu and Kristina Mladenovic; Cristina Bucsa and Nicole Melichar-Martinez; Elise Mertens and Zhang Shuai; Hsieh Su-Wei and Jelena Ostapenko; and Ellen Perez and Demi Schuurs. Anna Danilina and Aleksandra Krunic qualified in September but withdrew after Krunic injured her knee.
Still to come. The group draws, the daily schedule, and 2026 points and prize money had not been published.
This snapshot is dated and will change. The career record above does not.
For the men’s season finale and a side-by-side comparison of the two events, see our ATP Finals and WTA Finals explainer.
