Elena Rybakina and Aryna Sabalenka are in. Now the race is on to determine which six players will join them at WTA Finals Indian Wells November 8-15.

Two Americans and two former BNP Paribas Open champions are among the contenders inside the Top 10 of the PIF Race to WTA Finals who are chasing crucial points during the final stretch of the regular season. Back-to-back WTA 1000s over the next three weeks in Beijing and Wuhan present the best remaining opportunities for players to punch their tickets to the season finale, which features the best eight singles players and doubles teams of the year.

For those who qualify, the return to the Indian Wells Tennis Garden will come eight months after they competed here at the BNP Paribas Open and the experience will be markedly different.

Instead of the long, warm March days, the game’s elite will return to crisper November desert air and a more intimate stage. Instead of action being spread between multiple match courts throughout the spectacular sprawling palm-lined campus, the spotlight will exclusively shine on Stadium 2, bringing every fan close to the action. One session beginning with two singles matches followed by two doubles contests will be the format through the round-robin stage and semi-finals.

Americans Jessica Pegula and Coco Gauff and 2025 BNP Paribas Open champion Mirra Andreeva are tightly bunched in Race positions three through five, more than 800 points ahead of the chasing pack, giving them an excellent chance to qualify.

Should they qualify, Pegula and Gauff will both attempt to become the first player to win the WTA Finals on home soil since Lindsay Davenport triumphed at New York’s Madison Square Garden in 1999.

Third-placed Pegula (5,825 points) has put together another remarkably consistent season and is closing in on a fifth consecutive appearance at the WTA Finals. The top-ranked American has won titles in Dubai and Charleston and reached the semi-finals at the Australian Open and US Open.

Fifth-placed Gauff (5,654 points), who won a dramatic 2024 WTA Finals title match in a third-set tie-break over China’s Zheng Qinwen in Riyadh, takes strong hardcourt form into the Asian swing after winning Cincinnati and reaching the US Open semi-finals. As a former champion in Beijing and the defending champion in Wuhan, Gauff will like her chances of cementing her spot in Indian Wells in coming weeks.

Andreeva (fourth place with 5,722 points) is the 2025 BNP Paribas Open champion. After winning her first Grand Slam title at Roland Garros, the 19-year-old is highly likely to make her WTA Finals debut.

And here’s an important qualification rule to highlight.

If Andreeva remains in the Top 7 of the Race, Wimbledon champion Linda Noskova (4,234 points) will almost certainly qualify, even if she slips lower than her current position in eighth spot. Under WTA Finals rules, as the highest-placed major champion of 2026 not in the Top 7, Noskova would qualify if she remains in the Top 20 of the Race.

For the other contenders, that effectively moves the qualification cut from eighth to seventh in the Race.

Elina Svitolina (4,809 points), the 2018 WTA Finals champion, this year’s Wimbledon finalist Karolina Muchova (4,400 points) Marta Kostyuk (3,910 points) and 10th-placed Iga Swiatek (3,584 points), a two-time BNP Paribas Open winner and 2023 WTA Finals champion, are the other leading contenders.

As players turn their attention to finishing the regular season strong in Asia, the bigger prize remains a same-year return to Indian Wells in November for the WTA Finals.