The draw for the groups of the Tournament of Champions has been announced. Who will the world number one play and who will the Czech doubles players face?

On Saturday, the draw for the preliminary groups of the Tennis Tournament of Champions took place. After twelve years, no Czech singles player will take part in the event officially called WTA Finals, which will take place in Fort Worth, Texas. On the other hand, in the doubles, the Czech tennis will be represented by world leaders Barbora Krejcikova and Kateřina Siniaková.

Iga Świąteková, winner of eight tournaments this year, including Roland Garros and the US Open, is at the top of the singles ranking.

The Polish star and one of the main favourites for the title will play in Tracy Austin’s group with American Cori Gauff, Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia and Russian Daria Kasatkina.

The United States of America will also be represented at the home tournament in Nancy Richey’s group, thanks to Jessica Pegula. The second foursome also includes Ons Jabeur of Tunisia, Maria Sakkari of Greece and Aryna Sabalenka of Belarus.

Krejcikova and Siniakova will defend their first place from last year at the Tournament of Champions. They will also face both American singles participants, Gauff and Pegula, in the Casie Casals group, on their way to the semifinals.

The Czech pair, who have six Grand Slam triumphs to their credit, will face one more local tennis player, namely Desirae Krawczyk. She will play alongside the Dutch Demi Schuurs. The remaining pair are China’s Xu Yifan and Yang Zhaoxuan.

Pam Shriver’s doubles group will feature Canada’s Gabriela Dabrowska with Mexico’s Giuliana Olmos, Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova with Belgium’s Elise Mertens, Ukraine’s Lyudmila Kichenok with Latvia’s Jelena Ostapenko and Kazakhstan’s Anna Danilina with Brazil’s Beatriz Haddad Maia.

This year’s Tournament of Champions will take place from 31 October to 7 November. It will be played on a hard surface at the Dickies Arena for 14,000 spectators. Live coverage of the prestigious event will be broadcast by O2 TV Sport.

Last year the event was held in Guadalajara, Mexico. The singles there was dominated by Garbiñe Muguruza of Spain, who defeated Anett Kontaveit of Estonia 6:3 and 7:5 in the final clash.

Neither of the recent finalists qualified for the 2022 WTA Finals given their current ranking position.

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