Chris Evert reacts to picture of Iga Swiatek, Jessica Pegula and other WTA Finals contenders from 'purple carpet' gala

Tennis legend Chris Evert has reacted to Iga Swiatek, Jessica Pegula, Coco Gauff, and others who attended the WTA Finals gala.

The 51st edition of the WTA Finals will start on Monday, October 31. The year-end championships, which will be held in Fort Worth, Texas, will feature the top eight female players from the 2022 season.

Before they begin their fight for the title, the top eight WTA players in the world, Iga Swiatek, Gauff, Ons Jabeur, Pegula, Daria Kasatkina, Caroline Garcia, and Aryna Sabalenka, gathered for a fun pre-tournament photoshoot.

Pictures from the event caught Chris Evert's eyes, who took to social media to express her joy. The 18-time Grand Slam champion shared a photo posted by Pegula and said that it was nice to see the players getting along with each other.

"Great photo. And they all get along and like each other! #RoleModels @WTA," Evert tweeted.

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"For sure it was confusing to me because I wouldn't expect hearing this news" - Iga Swiatek on Simona Halep's doping scandal

Iga Swiatek pictured at the 2022 WTA Finals.

During a pre-tournament press conference in Texas, Iga Swiatek was questioned about her reaction to Simona Halep's doping-related suspension and what the Pole did to make sure nothing similar didn't happen to her.

The World No. 1 stated that she found the news of Halep testing positive for a banned substance perplexing because she never imagined someone like her would act in such a manner.

"Well, for sure it was confusing to me because I wouldn't expect hearing this news," Iga Swiatek said, adding, "Simona, from my point of view, seems like a person who always cared about being fair, and she was a great example for me. I don't know how it works in terms of the system that they're going to, I don't know. Is she going to be tested a couple of more times or whatever? Hopefully, I don't know, it's going to be more clear for fans and for us."

The three-time Grand Slam champion said that she takes the best possible care of herself and that she has the right people around her who will ensure that nothing similar will happen to her.

"But, yeah, it's kind of like disappointing, and she must feel really bad. From my point of view, the most important thing for me is just taking care of myself and being kind of always safe and making my environment more safe and being careful. So we'll do that. But right now it's just the beginning of my journey because I always had people around me who actually knew how to do that, yeah," she expressed