A first WTA Finals trophy isn’t the only thing at stake for Aryna Sabalenka and Elena Rybakina on Saturday. After both went unbeaten in the round-robin phase of the tournament, the winner of the last match of the season will take home $5.235 million when she takes the title in Riyadh with a combined 5-0 record.
It’s a hefty sum, the biggest payout in WTA history, in fact—and makes for a cool secondary motivation behind taking home the Billie Jean King Trophy for two players who have already earend some of the game’s other big prizes.
But the world No. 1, who bagged more than $12 million in year-to-date on-court earnings coming into the year-end championships and figures to improve on her already-lofty place amongst the highest-paid female athetes in the world after her successes this season, says “I never focus on the money.”
Read more: WTA Finals Final: Sabalenka vs. Rybakina | Where to Watch
Q: Aryna, well done. So, what do you think it’s been like to play a match for more than $5 million?
ARYNA SABALENKA: I never focus on the money.
Q: Oh, come on. That’s not what [coach] Anton [Dubrov] said!
ARYNA SABALENKA: I never focus on the money when I play the match. I just really have a lot of love to the sport, and I really enjoy fighting. I really enjoy, like, pushing myself to the limit, and I enjoy these kind of things. And, I mean, of course, when you win, you think, ‘Oh actually, I’ve got a good check,’ you know. But this is never crossing my mind during the match. I mean, even right now, you just told me and before you told me that, I never, never thought about that. But it’s, of course, it’s a good check to have.
