Paolini and Rybakina actually played each other in Ningbo, China on Saturday, in the semifinals of the WTA 500 event, and going in, Paolini needed to win the match to qualify for the WTA Finals.
Rybakina ended up powering to a 6-3, 6-2 victory.
But there was a curve ball—at the same time, the draw for the WTA 500 event in Tokyo next week came out, and Paolini and Rybakina were in it, but Andreeva wasn’t. With Paolini currently No. 7 in the Race to the WTA Finals standings and Andreeva and Rybakina at No. 8 and No. 9, there’s now no mathematical way that both players can pass Paolini in Tokyo, meaning she’ll finish at least at No. 8, and thus she clinched her spot in Riyadh.
Having finished 2024 at No. 4 after a breakthrough season highlighted by her first two Grand Slam finals at Roland Garros and Wimbledon and her first WTA 1000 title in Dubai, Paolini has had another excellent season in 2025, highlighted by capturing her second WTA 1000 title in Rome—on home soil, no less. She also reached another WTA 1000 final in Cincinnati and five more semifinals, including back-to-back final-four appearances the last two weeks in China, at Wuhan and Ningbo.
She made her WTA Finals debut last year, in both singles and doubles (with Errani), falling in the round-robin stage of both.
