WTA Finals: Andreeva and Svitolina meet again in the final

Mirra Andreeva and Elina Svitolina will contest the WTA Finals title in Indian Wells on Sunday, November 15. On Saturday the Russian beat Jessica Pegula 6-3 6-4, while the Ukrainian swept past Linda Noskova 6-2 6-1. It is a rematch: on Monday, in their Group 2 opener, Andreeva won 6-4 6-0.

The final pits two very different journeys against each other. Andreeva, 19, is playing the season-ending event in singles for the first time and has yet to drop a set. Svitolina, 32, won the Finals in 2018 and, according to the WTA, is into her third career final at this tournament. Almost 13 years separate them.

There is more at stake than the trophy. In the site's live rankings Andreeva is No. 2 with 7,306 points, 1,000 of them earned this week, after starting the event at No. 3 in the official standings. The title would lift her to 7,806 points, 293 behind Elena Rybakina, the No. 1 on 8,099. Second place in the live rankings is already hers: Aryna Sabalenka, No. 3, is stuck on 6,685.

For Svitolina the maths is even more interesting. She is No. 6 with 5,921 live points, 800 more than at the start of the week. Victory would take her to 6,421, past both Coco Gauff (6,163) and Pegula (6,160), and up to No. 4 live. That would be a new personal best: the site's ranking history records No. 6, reached on October 12, 2026, as her highest position.

The first semifinal lasted an hour and 25 minutes and did not start the way Andreeva wanted. According to the WTA's match report, Pegula broke first at 2-1, helped by an Andreeva double fault. The reply was immediate: a break back, a hold for 3-2 and another break to serve for the set at 5-3. The set was over in just under 45 minutes, with 18 unforced errors from the American.

The second set followed the same script. Pegula went up 3-1 with a break, Andreeva levelled at 3-3 and then took control of the rallies, breaking four times in the set. Pegula ended the Russian's run of four straight games by holding for 4-5, but Andreeva then served out the match, winning five of the last six games.

It was the first meeting between the two, and Andreeva played it largely on instinct. "It was very interesting for me to see how the match would actually go because I don't really know how she plays," she said in her press conference, explaining that she tried to react on the spot because she could not read her opponent's patterns.

The numbers from her week already belong in the record books. Andreeva has beaten Svitolina 6-4 6-0, Sabalenka 6-4 6-0, Diana Shnaider 6-2 6-1 and Pegula 6-3 6-4: 48 games won and 18 lost. According to the WTA, no player had dropped so few on the way to the final since the round-robin format was introduced in 2003. Only Serena Williams and Chris Evert had previously won their first four Finals matches without losing a set.

There is an age record too: Andreeva is the tournament's youngest finalist since Maria Sharapova in 2004. Saturday's win, again according to the WTA, was her 54th of the season.

The second semifinal was even quicker: 65 minutes. Noskova opened with three double faults in her first service game and finished with 11 double faults, 40 per cent of first serves in and just 7 of 30 second-serve points won. Svitolina hit 20 winners against 18 unforced errors and won 12 of the last 14 games.

The Ukrainian's path was uphill all the way. After losing her opener to Andreeva, she came back to beat Karolina Muchova 3-6 6-2 6-2 and then won the decider against Sabalenka, 6-3 3-6 6-1. Noskova had topped Group 1, where three players finished with two wins and one loss: the Czech went through with 5 sets won and 2 lost, ahead of Pegula, while Gauff missed out on set percentage.

The WTA has listed Svitolina's milestones. At 32 she is the oldest finalist since Venus Williams in 2017 and the fourth player to reach the final after turning 32, alongside Martina Navratilova, Serena and Venus Williams. She is also the 14th player with at least three Finals finals: of those, only she and Gabriela Sabatini never reached world No. 1.

This season she has collected 11 Top 10 wins, matching her career high from 2017. Asked whether she raises her level on the big stages, she kept it short: "I don't know. Let the stats speak for it." On the final she was more cautious: "Tomorrow I'll have to do some homework and try to execute better," she told reporters.

The homework starts with the group stage. On Monday Andreeva won in 70 minutes, saved all six break points she faced, four of them in the final game, and closed with seven games in a row. In the site's archive the head-to-head is 2-0 to the Russian, who also won their quarterfinal at the Indian Wells WTA 1000 in 2025, 7-5 6-3, on the same courts. In the WTA's complete count the record is 2-1.

Form backs up the picture. Andreeva has won 9 of her last 10 matches; the only defeat was the Beijing final, lost to Qinwen Zheng 7-5 6-4. In 2026 she also reached the quarterfinals at the US Open and at the WTA 500 in Singapore. In 2025 her record on the main tour was 39 wins, 16 losses and two titles.

Svitolina has won 7 of her last 10. In the autumn she stopped in the quarterfinals both in Beijing, beaten by Zheng 6-3 7-6(6), and in Wuhan, where Sonay Kartal edged her 6-2 2-6 6-4. In the summer she reached the semifinals in Toronto. In 2025 she finished with 30 wins, 14 losses and one title.

The recent roll of honour offers no clear pattern. In 2023 Iga Swiatek won, 6-1 6-0 over Pegula; in 2024 Gauff, 3-6 6-4 7-6(2) over Zheng; in 2025 Rybakina, 6-3 7-6(0) over Sabalenka. This year, according to the site's statistics, 14 matches have been played, with 3 tie-breaks and 4 matches going the distance. Both 6-0 sets belong to Andreeva, and the longest match remains Pegula-Noskova, 7-6(2) 4-6 7-5, 35 games.

On Sunday the trophy will change hands in any case, because Rybakina, the defending champion, is not in this year's draw. Andreeva plays to finish her first Finals week unbeaten; Svitolina to win the tournament eight years after her first title. If the stats are to speak, as the Ukrainian asks, so far they have sided with the 19-year-old: but a final is a story of its own.