Chanda Rubin: “Don’t sleep on Elena Rybakina, Amanda Anisimova” at WTA Finals

The 2025 WTA Finals Riyadh field is set and thoroughly stacked with the eight best players from the season, but who will ultimately lift the trophy? Tennis Channel Analysts Chanda Rubin and Jan-Michael Gambill argue the title could come down to a mix of conditions and mental toughness.

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“On these courts, when you’re inside an arena and conditions are pretty standardized, it favors those clean ballstrikers,” said Rubin, a former Australian Open semifinalist, of the indoor event. “I kind of like that for Amanda Anisimova, but it’s her first time making the tour finals. So, we’ll see how quickly she gets used to just everything surrounding it. But she has been fabulous.”

Anisimova will indeed cap a breakthrough season with a maiden berth at the WTA Finals, having reached back-to-back major finals at Wimbledon and the US Open. This fall, she captured a second WTA 1000 title of the year at the China Open, beating both two Riyadh rivals along the way in Jasmine Paolini and Coco Gauff.

Gauff, who won the title last year in a three-set final over Zheng Qinwen, and Anisimova are two of four Americans set to compete in Riyadh, joining countrywomen Jessica Pegula and Madison Keys to make up half the field at the WTA Finals.

“It’s hard to bet against Coco Gauff with what we see her doing during this swing,” Rubin said. “She did it last year, of course, culminating with winning the WTA Finals. She has looked good. The serve seems more confident and that translates to the rest of her game.

“Sometimes at the end of the year, it’s also about mental toughness, and that’s what Coco Gauff has in spades,” agreed Gambill. “That’s why I do give her an advantage in situations like this, when it’s the end of the year and everyone has played a lot of tennis. With so much on the line, that’s Coco Gauff and Jasmine Paolini, two mentally tough individuals.”

Gambill was also high on Anisimova, who could land in a round-robin group featuring either world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka or No. 2 Iga Swiatek—but not Gauff, due to her Top 4 seeding.

Another one to watch? Elena Rybakina, the eighth and final qualifier who sealed her spot with a six-match winning streak through tournaments in Ningbo and Tokyo to deny teenager Mirra Andreeva a WTA Finals debut.

“Do not sleep on Elena Rybakina,” Rubin argued of the former Wimbledon champion, another clean ballstriker. “She withdrew from her last match; hopefully there’s nothing lingering there, nothing major. She hasn’t performed well at the WTA Finals in the past, so I think she’s due for a good run.”

The 2025 WTA Finals will begin on November 1, with the Top 2 finishers from two round-robin groups advancing into the semifinals and a championship match playing out on November 8.