The 2019 Women’s Tennis Association WTA Finals to be held in Shenzhen, China is offering the biggest prize money in the history of professional tennis!
To be held in October 2019, the WTA finals will award its winner a whopping $4.725 million, if she managed to stay unbeaten in the entire competition. This prize money, by far, surpasses the record for the maximum pay of $3.85 million that the U.S Open awarded to its men’s and women’s singles champions in 2018.
This prize money is also among one of the highest ever awarded in any sports. For instance, the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup-winning team was awarded $4 million as was the FIFA Women’s World Cup-winning team.
The 2019 WTA Finals is the first time that the tournament will be held in the Chinese city of Shenzhen and will be played in the Shenzhen Bay Sports Centre. Prior to this, Singapore had hosted the event from 2014 to 2018.
The title sponsor for the event is Shiseido that has, in collaboration with the Chinese Tennis Association and other organizations, put up this huge amount as prize money.
Elina Svitolina from Ukraine is the defending champion of the WTA Finals.
What is the WTA Finals?
The WTA Finals is a tournament held at the end of the tennis season, with the top eight ranked women players competing with each other in two round-robin groups. After the four grand slams, it is considered one of the most prestigious tournaments in the world of tennis. It also sees participation from the top-ranked women’s doubles teams.
This championship was held for the first time in 1972 and was called the Virginia Slims Championship. The inaugural championship was won by American Chris Evert.
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