Andreja Klepac and Maria Jose Martinez Sanchez are now the seventh pair to qualify for the WTA Finals after the withdrawal of Lucie Hradecka and Katerina Siniakova was announced earlier in the day. Klepac and Martinez Sanchez had a consistent year thus far and managed to reach nine quarterfinals throughout the year, qualifying for their first WTA Finals as a pair.
Great start to the year
Klepac and Martinez Sanchez started off the year on a positive note, ousting fellow Singapore qualifiers Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Kveta Peschke for their first win of the year in Brisbane. They were able to trash the Chan sisters, Yung-jan and Hao-ching, in the first round of the Sydney International where they fell to eventual champions Timea Babos and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the quarterfinals. Being unseeded at the first Major of the year, the pair was able to defeat seventh seeds Julia Goerges and Karolina Pliskova in the first round.
Poor run saw them lag behind in the Porsche Race to Singapore leaderboard
They failed to earn any good results in their next tournaments but they were able to pull off a huge shocker in the third round of the Miami Open, defeating then-top pairing Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lucie Safarova in straight sets. Enduring through a three-match losing streak, Klepac and Martinez Sanchez had a disappointing clay court season.
Rebounding from their low moments
The pair had to wait until the US Open for their first quarterfinal appearance since the Mallorca Open, defeating top seeds Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina along the way. Their impressive run seemed to have given them to momentum, clinching their first title of the year at the Toray Pan Pacific Open as the fourth seeds.
Their ability to reach the quarterfinals in most of the tournaments was enough to send them to the WTA Finals for the first time as a pair, with Klepac making her first appearance in Singapore and Martinez Sanchez has qualified once back in 2009 alongside Nuria Llagostera Vives, winning the prestigious tournament on their first attempt.
The doubles field in Singapore
There is one more spot available in the doubles competition, with Kiki Bertens and Johanna Larsson being in the driver's seat to claim that final position. There are already six other qualified pairings:
US Open champions Martina Hingis and Chan Yung-jan
Wimbledon champions Ekaterina Makarova and Elena Vesnina
Roland Garros finalists Ashleigh Barty and Casey Dellacqua
Beijing finalists Timea Babos and Andrea Hlavackova
Toronto finalists Anna-Lena Groenefeld and Kveta Peschke
Miami champions Gabriela Dabrowski and Xu Yi-fan
On the same day, Caroline Garcia was also announced to be the last qualifier for the singles competition after Johanna Konta withdrew from the Kremlin Cup next week, thus ending her chances of grabbing the eighth spot. The WTA Finals would kick off on the 22nd of October with the doubles competition starting play on the 26th of October.