Key takeaways as Gauff, Pegula and others prepare for the WTA Finals

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Greg Garber

Like so many 20-year-olds, Coco Gauff is a creature of the Internet.

A few days ago, before it was official, she discovered she had qualified for the PIF WTA Finals in Riyadh.

“If you look it up online, there’s a checkmark by my name,” she told reporters after losing to Aryna Sabalenka in the Wuhan semifinals. “They told me not to say anything. Sorry.

“But it’s by my name.”

That drew a good laugh -- and now that it’s official, Gauff isn’t the only one laughing. She’ll be joined in Riyadh by Elena Rybakina, Jasmine Paolini and Jessica Pegula. Previously, No.1 Iga Swiatek and No.2 Aryna Sabalenka qualified for the Nov. 2-9 event in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

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It’s a complicated calculus, but this much we know:

There are two spots in singles still up for grabs.

Here are a few takeaways from Monday’s qualifying news:

Different ending for the Americans?

Gauff and Pegula have both qualified for the third straight year in singles -- will this be the year one of them wins it all?

Gauff, 20, and Pegula, 30, lost all three of their doubles matches in Cancun’s group play, but they reached the semifinals in singles. Pegula won that match 6-2, 6-1 but fell to Swiatek in the final.

“It’s my first time not playing doubles, so that’s going to be a different experience,” Gauff said. “I’m looking at dresses. They have a lot of things planned for us. I’m super excited.”

Year-end No.1 still up for grabs

How consistently consistent have the top two players been? Swiatek and Sabalenka qualified for the year-end championships for the fourth consecutive year. They’re the only two players to possess the No.1 ranking over the past two-and-a-half years.

Swiatek assumed the top spot in April 2022 when Ashleigh Barty retired and stayed there for 75 weeks. Sabalenka had an eight-week stint at No.1 after last year’s US Open, but Swiatek took it back by winning her last 11 matches -- including five at the WTA Finals in Cancun.

Swiatek, winner of the French Open and WTA 1000 events in Doha, Indian Wells, Madrid and Rome, leads the PIF WTA Rankings with 9,785 points. Sabalenka, the champion at the Australian Open and the US Open, is 69 points behind.

Two for one

If Zheng had managed to win the pivotal third set in Sunday’s final in Wuhan, she would be in a better position. As it stands, the 22-year-old from China can qualify in Ningbo.

Zheng, seeded No.2 in Ningbo, is scheduled to play the winner of the first-round match between Karolina Muchova and Olivia Gadecki. Emma Navarro’s chances of qualifying took a hit when she withdrew from the event.

Doubles: Only two vacancies left

Caroline Dolehide and Desirae Krawczyk, the No.3-seeded team in Wuhan, lost their first match to Asia Muhammad and Jessica Pegula but have still qualified for Riyadh. Their biggest title of the season came in Toronto.

Five other teams had already qualified:

Jelena Ostapenko and Lyudmyla Kichenok, Hsieh Su-Wei and Elise Mertens, Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini, Gabriela Dabrowski and Erin Routliffe and Katerina Siniakova and Taylor Townsend.

Two more spots are available. The teams of Nicole Melichar-Martinez and Ellen Perez and Chan Hao-Ching and Veronika Kudermetova are in the best position to qualify.