Elena Rybakina withdraws from the WTA Finals with a viral illness, Marta Kostyuk steps in

World No. 1 Elena Rybakina has withdrawn from the 2026 WTA Finals at Indian Wells with a viral illness, the WTA announced on Saturday 7 November, the eve of the event. The defending champion will not play in the California desert, and Ukraine's Marta Kostyuk, the first alternate, takes her place in Group 1.

What the WTA announced

The WTA said Rybakina was pulling out because of a viral illness, and a WTA spokesman gave the same reason to AFP. In a statement released through the tour, the Kazakh said she was "really sad" to withdraw and added: "My body is just not physically ready to compete." She plans to rest at home and prepare for the 2027 season, and told fans she looked forward to returning to Indian Wells in March.

The timing is cruel for the 27-year-old. She was the first singles player to qualify for the finale this year, after winning the US Open in September, and she arrives at the end of the season with a 54-14 record and four titles: the Australian Open, Stuttgart, the US Open and Ningbo, according to the WTA. Last year in Riyadh she won the title without losing a match, having been the last player to qualify.

The withdrawal does not affect the top of the rankings. Rybakina clinched the year-end No. 1 position in Tokyo last month, a week in which she also pulled out of that event with a neck problem, as we reported in our Tokyo story. She currently holds 8,099 points, more than 1,600 ahead of Aryna Sabalenka in second place.

Kostyuk steps into Group 1

When the draw was made on 3 November, Group 1 brought together Rybakina, Coco Gauff, Jessica Pegula and Linda Noskova (see our groups breakdown). Kostyuk, ranked No. 10, now completes it. Group 2 is unchanged, with Sabalenka, Mirra Andreeva, Elina Svitolina and Karolina Muchova.

Kostyuk inherits Rybakina's opening match against Noskova, which starts the tournament at 12:00 local time on Sunday 8 November. Both women are making their debut at the event and both have 35 wins this season. The WTA notes that Noskova leads their head-to-head 2-1, after three meetings in 2026 on three different surfaces: Kostyuk won on clay on her way to the Madrid title, Noskova won on grass during her run to the Wimbledon title, and Noskova took their only hard-court match in three sets in the fourth round of the US Open.

The Ukrainian's form since New York is a question mark: she has won one match since the US Open, in Guadalajara. "Being here is obviously such a blessing," she said on the eve of her debut, as quoted by the WTA.

Gauff against Pegula, with No. 4 at stake

The second singles match on Sunday is an all-American meeting between Gauff, the No. 4 seed, and Pegula, the No. 5 seed. Their rivalry is level at 5-5, and this is the fourth year in a row they meet at the season finale, with Pegula leading 2-1 in those matches, the WTA says. Gauff won both of their 2026 meetings, in the Wimbledon quarter-finals and the Cincinnati final.

There is more than a group win on the line. In the current WTA rankings Gauff has 5,763 points and Pegula 5,760, a gap of three points, and each round-robin win is worth 200, as Tennis Majors pointed out. The winner on Sunday therefore takes a clear step towards finishing the year at No. 4. "When you play somebody so many times, it becomes even more mental," Gauff said, according to the WTA.

What it means for the title race

Without Rybakina, Group 1 loses the player who had been the season's most consistent winner, and Gauff, the 2024 champion, becomes the only former winner left in it. The top two in each group reach the semi-finals, where each group winner plays the runner-up of the other group. Sabalenka, who has never won the WTA Finals, now leads the field by ranking, with Andreeva close behind her. An unbeaten champion would collect 1,500 ranking points and $3.37 million, according to Tennis Majors.