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US Open champ Iga Swiatek leads tennis superstars into North Texas for 2022 WTA Finals

Iga Swiatek is the No. 1 women's tennis player in the world.

Al Bello/Getty Images

UPDATE 10-29-22: The final eight singles players and doubles teams, and order of play, are now set. Find the match schedule and more at the WTA website.

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Iga Swiatek is the No. 1 women's tennis player in the world.Fresh off her US Open victory, the world's No. 1 female tennis player, Iga Swiatek, will lead the top eight singles players and doubles teams into Fort Worth next month for the 2022 Women's Tennis Association (WTA) Finals.

The competition will take place October 31-November 7 at Dickies Arena, and tickets are now on sale.

The prestigious year-end finale has been moved to Fort Worth from Shenzhen, China, for one year only, WTA officials say. It's the first time the contest has been staged in North Texas, and the first time it's in the United States in 17 years.

“The Dickies Arena and the city of Fort Worth has a proven track record of hosting world class sporting and entertainment events, and we are excited to bring the WTA’s showpiece tournament back to the United States for the first time since 2005,” says Steve Simon, WTA Chairman and CEO, in a release. “This location and venue for the 2022 WTA Finals will provide a fantastic experience for players and fans alike and offer a fitting finale as another exciting season on the Hologic WTA Tour comes to a close.”

While the race to the top eight is still on, with several tournaments still to be played in coming weeks, both Swiatek and No. 2-ranked Ons Jabeur officially have qualified for the finals.

"I’m really excited to qualify for the WTA Finals this year for the second time in my career and I’m really looking forward to playing in front of the fans in Fort Worth,” Swiatek says in the release.

The top-ranked doubles team of Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova also has qualified.

"We are really looking forward to playing in Fort Worth in Texas and hopefully defending our title," Krejcikova says.

Two American stars, Jessie Pegula and Coco Gauff, currently stand at No. 3 and 4 in singles, respectively. Together, they are the 4th-ranked doubles team in the world. If they maintain these standings or climb higher, North Texas fans will get to seem them play.

Coco Gauff is one of the top-ranked singles and doubles players. Julian Finney/Getty Images

As of press time, the top eight singles players are:

1. Iga Swiatek (Poland)

2. Ons Jabeur (Tunisia)

3. Jessie Pegula (USA)

4. Coco Gauff (USA)

5. Caroline Garcia (France)

6. Aryna Sabalenka*

7. Daria Kasatkina*

8. Simona Halep (Romania)

As of press time, the top eight doubles teams are:

1. Barbora Krejcikova (Cze) / Katerina Siniakova (Cze)

2. Gabriela Dabrowski (Can) / Giuliana Olmos (Mex)

3. Lyudmyla Kichenok (Ukr) / Jelena Ostapenko (Lat)

4. Jessie Pegula (USA) / Coco Gauff (USA)

5. Elise Mertens (Bel) / Veronika Kudermetova*

6. Yifan Xu (Chn) / Zhauxuan Yang (Chn)

7. Demi Schuurs (Ned) / Desirae Krawczyk (USA)

8. Nicole Melichar-Martinez (USA) / Ellen Perez (Aus)

(*Per WTA style, players native to Russia do not have their country listed.)

Click here to follow the latest standings on the Race to the WTA Finals and here for the most up-to-date 2022 WTA Tour calendar.

All Session Tickets for the WTA Finals went on sale at 10 am Thursday, September 22, via Ticketmaster.

Single Session Tickets will go on sale at 10 am Tuesday, September 27, via Ticketmaster. (Venue presale is Monday, September 26 from 10 am-10 pm, CODE: SINGLES)

The WTA was founded by groundbreaking tennis legend Billie Jean King in 1983 on the principle of equal opportunity and has remained a global leader in women’s professional sports.

"The WTA is one of the world’s most recognizable and high-profile sports organizations, consisting of more than 1,600 players representing approximately 87 nations, all competing to earn WTA rankings, points, and prestigious tournament titles," the organization says. "The Hologic WTA Tour is annually comprised of around 50 events and four Grand Slams, spanning six continents and nearly 30 countries and regions with a global audience of over 900 million."

Keep up with the WTA at wtatennis.com.

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Movie Review

Steven Spielberg returns to alien territory in captivating Disclosure Day

Photo courtesy of Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment

Tommy Martinez, Emily Blunt, and Josh O'Connor in Disclosure Day.

With the release of Disclosure Day, Steven Spielberg has now directed 17 feature films over 26 years in the 21st century, the exact same number over the exact same period of time he did in the 20th century. The first half of his career was mostly defined by his blockbuster films, while the second half has seen him exploring a lot more serious material. Disclosure Day marries the two for an experience only he could deliver.

The film starts in medias res, as Dr. Daniel Kellner (Josh O’Connor) is being pursued by Noah Scanlon (Colin Firth) and a team of henchmen for stealing intellectual property from Wardex, a government contractor for which he works. As the audience gradually discovers, Daniel is a cyber-security programmer who has discovered evidence of alien life in the company’s servers. He and others within the company, including Hugo Wakefield (Colman Domingo), are determined to release the information to the public.

Concurrently, television meteorologist Margaret Fairchild (Emily Blunt) starts experiencing weird things, including the ability to speak multiple languages and read people’s minds. Without either of them actively trying to seek each other out, Daniel and Margaret are set on a path to meet, with Scanlon (with the help of a mysterious alien device) trying to track their every move.

Directed by Spielberg and written by David Koepp, the film is an almost even mix between classic Spielberg wonder and a deep story about what it is to be human. By starting the film in the middle of the story, Spielberg immediately ramps up the excitement level. While the movie has relatively little action, that sequence and a few others deliver the type of propulsiveness for which Spielberg is revered, keeping the 145-minute film moving at a brisk pace.

Of the different types of alien movies Spielberg has made over the years, this one is closer to Close Encounters of the Third Kind than E.T. The story ponders the ethical, religious, political, and sociological effects that revealing the existence of aliens could have on the world. The debates had by various characters purposefully take the film out of being a sheer popcorn flick, forcing the audience to grapple with issues that they may have never considered before.

Unlike some other Spielberg films, he and Koepp don’t hold the audience’s collective hand throughout the story. There are a lot of times when viewers have to use context clues to understand exactly what is happening. That especially goes for an extremely important aspect of the world in which the story takes place that could pass you by if you’re only paying attention to the main characters’ dialogue. Spielberg’s using only subtle allusions for an element which would be the main focus of most other films is a fascinating choice.

O’Connor (Wake Up Dead Man, Challengers) has that everyman quality that a story like this needs. It always feels like it's him against the world, and does a terrific job of exuding both confidence and fear. Blunt delivers a fantastic performance, switching between confusion and composure with ease. Firth makes for a solid villain, and the story is helped by great turns from Domingo and Eve Hewson.

The idea that the nearly 80-year-old Steven Spielberg is still making blockbuster-style movies over 50 years after he made Jaws is astonishing, and the fact that he still knows how to make them work is even more impressive. Disclosure Day may not be the type of alien movie many were expecting, but it’s another high water mark in a career that has been full of them.

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Disclosure Day opens in theaters on June 12.

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