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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

Great acting and directing drive The Christophers to artistic heights

Photo by Claudette Barius

Michaela Coel and Ian McKellen in The Christophers.

Director Steven Soderbergh is one of those filmmakers who — aside from the Ocean’s series — never seems to make the same kind of movie twice. He is somehow able to adapt his abilities to all sorts of different stories, making each of them as compelling as any other. His latest masterclass is in the London-set film, The Christophers.

Lori Butler (Michaela Coel), who restores art for a living, is approached by brother and sister Sallie and Barnaby Sklar (Jessica Gunning and James Corden) with a scheme. They want her to become the new assistant for their aging father, Julian (Ian McKellen), a famous artist known for a series called “The Christophers,” in order to gain access to unfinished paintings from the series and complete them herself.

Lori accepts the deal despite having some uneasy feelings about Julian, with whom she had a bad interaction years ago. Julian is just as wary, both because he knows of his children’s interest in the unfinished works, and because he would prefer to be left in peace. Although the trepidation on both sides continues for the bulk of the story, a grudging respect arises between two artists who know skill when they see it.

Directed by Soderbergh and written by Ed Solomon, who last collaborated on No Sudden Move, the film is astonishing in its ability to be compelling with such a small story. Much of the film is spent inside Julian’s multi-story home as Julian and Lori have low-level confrontations about a variety of things, including the meaning of his art, her abilities, the fate of the remaining “Christophers,” and more. Each conversation brings out more detail about their worldviews and their thoughts about their lot in life.

Much of the success of the film lies in the performances of McKellen and Coel. The 86-year-old McKellen has not lost his ability to astonish with the spoken word, and the monologues he delivers are engrossing even when they’re about mundane things. Coel, best known for the 2020 HBO show I May Destroy You, is a great foil for McKellen, never backing down from his challenges and giving her own unique takes on her lines.

While the film can be enjoyable for non-art lovers, those who appreciate the vagaries of the art world will have a lot to chew on. Soderbergh and Solomon debate a lot of aspects of art, including whether it’s possible to separate the art from the person making it, why some art is valued more than others, the ethics of forgery, and more. Because the film is about a fictional artist, it gives the filmmakers a bit more freedom in their criticisms.

Aside from McKellen and Coel, Gunning (Baby Reindeer) and Corden are the only other two people who get significant screen time in the film. Both of them are, let’s say, acquired tastes, and each gives an elevated performance that matches the energy of their respective characters. Tilly Botsford makes a nice impression in a small role as Julian’s masseuse.

Soderbergh’s last three films — Presence, Black Bag, and now The Christophers — have nothing in common other than the expert filmmaker helming all of them. When you can make a ghost story, a spy film, and a small film about artists equally interesting, you know you’re doing something right.

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The Christophers is now playing in theaters.

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