The doubles field at the 2017 WTA Finals is finally set after the pairing of Kiki Bertens and Johanna Larsson officially qualified for the eighth and last spot in the tournament. After a year of impressive results, Bertens and Larsson will make their debut appearance at the WTA Finals.
Notable Results This Year
Bertens and Larsson had the best possible start to the season, strolling to the title at the ASB Classic without losing a set in the process. Early exits followed in their next tournaments and they had to wait till the Mutua Madrid Open for another quarterfinal result, defeating Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Safarova along the way. They had a lengthy break in between Indian Wells and Madrid, with both players focusing on singles competition during that period of time.
Disappointing performances at the French Open and Wimbledon Championships saw them linger outside the top-15 of the Porsche Race to Singapore leaderboard, with their chances to qualify for the WTA Finals slowly fading away.
However, they stormed back to claim the title in Gstaad, marching towards glory without facing any problems in the process. A third-round exit at the US Open saw them make a small rise in the leaderboard, but they were able to have their best run of the season during the Asian Swing.
Not facing any players in the top-100, Bertens and Larsson strolled to clinch the championship in Seoul before extending their winning streak to eight consecutive matches with their fourth title of the year in Linz, which thus sealed their place at the WTA Finals.
They were originally the 11th ranked pair on the leaderboard, but the withdrawals of two pairs and the ineligibility of Hlavackova/Peng (Hlavackova qualified with Babos already) allowed them to sneak into their first-ever qualification for the prestigious year-end Championships.
The doubles draw would take place on Tuesday night 6 pm Singapore local time, with Chan Yung-jan/Martina Hingis being the top seeds while Ekaterina Makarova/Elena Vesnina coming into Singapore as the defending champions and second seeds. Bertens and Larsson would be the eighth seeds at the event.