Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina reached the WTA Finals final without a lost match in Riyadh and that means both have a shot at collecting a maximum $5.2 million tournament prize money.
En route to making her second title match at the WTA Finals, Sabalenka defeated Jasmine Paolini, Jessica Pegula and Coco Gauff in the group stage before also beating Amanda Anisimova in the semifinal. Rybakina also went a perfect 3-0 in the Round Robin after overcoming Anisimova, Iga Swiatek and Ekaterina Alexandrova. The Kazakh defeated Pegula in the semifinal.
For winning a group-stage match at this year's WTA Finals, participants earned $355k - which means that Sabalenka and Rybakina each pocketed $1,065,000 for going perfect in their respective groups. By claiming wins in their Riyadh semifinal matches, they earned an additional $1,290,000.
And whoever wins today will see their total go to a staggering $5,2 million.
Sabalenka insisted that she didn't think about the WTA Finals money a bit
"No, I never think about these things when I'm playing matches. I just have a lot of love for this sport, and I enjoy competing. This prize, of course, is a great bonus to have, but my main priority is just to bring the best tennis, make sure people enjoy watching tennis... And that's it," the world No. 1 said on Tennis Channel when asked if she was thinking about the prospect of going a perfect 5-5 at the WTA Finals and collecting the biggest possible amount of money in Saudi Arabia.
