By McCarton Ackerman, USTA.com
Bethanie Mattek-Sands has been rewarded for her outstanding form in doubles with a spot in the season-ending BNP Paribas WTA Finals Singapore, held from Oct. 23-30.
The American veteran and Czech partner Lucie Safarova secured their second consecutive trip to Singapore by prevailing last week at the Wuhan Open. They became the fourth team to qualify for the year-end championships, with four other spots still currently up for grabs.
"Singapore last year was awesome. It's the year-end championships, the best of the best. Only the best teams get to go, so I think it's an honor to make it there in the end," said Mattek-Sands to the WTA website. "I think everyone at this point is fighting for a spot because the rankings were pretty close."
Injuries and scheduling differences have limited Mattek-Sands and Safarova to seven tournaments as a team this year, but they’ve made the most of their limited time together. In addition to winning their third Grand Slam doubles title together at the US Open, they raced to the Miami Open title in March without dropping a set and then repeated the feat in Wuhan. They are currently on an 11-match win streak.
Mattek-Sands has also enjoyed success with other partners in 2016. She won a gold medal in mixed doubles with Jack Sock at the Rio Olympics and won the BNP Paribas Open in March with fellow American CoCo Vandeweghe.
Mattek-Sands and Safarova are teaming up again this week at the China Open in Beijing, with their first match scheduled for Tuesday.