Tennis is finally catching its breath. After four Grand Slam56 other WTA Tour tournaments and the small matter of Paris 2024 OlympicsTHE tennis calendar enters its off-season – during which players are mostly first in the Maldives and then on the training grounds before the new campaign begins in Australia and New Zealand at the end of December.
In a review of the 2024 WTA season, the tennis team looks back at Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek’s battle for world number one; Zheng Qinwen’s breakthrough; The evolution of Coco Gauff; The emergence of Jasmine Paolini and much more.
They also select their best matches, surprises and favorite moments from another remarkable year in tennis.
Don’t forget to weigh in on your picks in the comments – there’s a lot of tennis to review.
How Sabalenka became world No. 1 – and how Swiatek could get back there
James Hansen: Sabalenka’s official ascension to world number 1 was deeply unsatisfactory: an unprecedented reduction in ranking points for non-participation in mandatory tournaments was moved Sabalenka above Swiatek on a Monday morning in October. It’s been a while in the making, though, especially for Swiatek, who said she thought she was going to “lose her mind about two weeks ago” during a press conference at the WTA Tour Finals. .
Matthew Futterman: Evolution and rest. She developed her serve’s biomechanical fixes by adding more variety to her game. She won the biggest points in the US Open semi-final And final against Emma Navarro And Jessica Pegula with short angles, drop shots and volleys, not the frozen rope winners she used to do blast Zheng Qinwen off the field in Melbourne. She also missed Wimbledon, the Olympics and other weeks, the latter due to Belarus’ exclusion from the tournament. Billie Jean King Cupwhich meant she had time to rest while everyone else flew and played.
Charlie Eccleshare: I don’t play Olympic Games and Wimbledon was a big thing, although at the time missing Wimbledon seemed like a huge deal. She talked about how she should have taken a break in March (after death of hockey player Konstantin Koltsovher former boyfriend), but getting into the American hard-court swing was a huge advantage while Swiatek seemed to run out of steam around the US Open.
Hansen: The Olympics didn’t define the season, but they probably had a bigger impact than expected earlier in the year. Swiatek, who visited Zheng unannounced, still finished the year with the most WTA top-10 titles as well as the highest winning percentage; she was world No. 1 from the start of the year until the end of October. She hired Wim Fissette as her new coach and they both talked about making adjustments to her game in the offseason to prevent her losses from looking like each other and being unstoppable, as began to happen around Wimbledon . She looks ready to press charges.
Eccleshare: When we spoke in Riyadh at the WTA Tour Finals, Sabalenka said that when she was the first world No. 1 (just before the end of the 2023 season), it was “five minutes” she felt like a pretender. Now she sees herself as someone who should dominate, and she showed that in Melbourne and then particularly in the hardcourt swing towards the end of the year. Swiatek wasn’t where she was expected in the second half and will likely return.
Matt Futterman: I don’t know if I see anyone else coming to challenge Swiatek and Sabalenka by passing the world number 1 back and forth at the moment. The X factor is Coco Gauff.
A season of two coaches for Gauff, and thoughts on the WTA top 10
Hansen: If you analyzed Gauff’s season – the WTA Tour Finals title, a WTA 1000 title in Beijing, a 250 in Auckland and the women’s doubles title at Roland Garros – as Gauff, what would you say?
Futterman: She would not have signed these results and as such she would be disappointed. I think she expected to continue accumulating Grand Slams, or at least win one more – and she didn’t reach a Grand Slam final, which is what she wants.
Eccleshare: I think you’d have to split this into the pre- and post-Brad Gilbert era, given the nature of her losses at Wimbledon and the US Open and the improvements she’s already made to her serve and forehand since then, although the serve can still leave her at seemingly unexpected moments. Gauff beat Navarro in the semifinals when she won Auckland, so for Navarro to knock her out of two Grand Slams in a row was a significant measure of where she was before parting ways with Gilbert.
Hansen: Let’s stay on the theme: Who in the WTA top 10 would have registered for their season and who would not have done so?
(Records before the Billie Jean King Cup)
Eccleshare: Zheng and Paolini are the ones who stand out. I think anyone outside the top three would have been a part of Paolini’s extraordinary year, with two Grand Slam finals, an Olympic doubles gold alongside Sara Errani, then a Billie Cup win Jean King with Italy also. Then Zheng, Olympic singles gold medalist, Australian Open final, those were the two that really got going. Navarro as well, as she continues to progress very steadily and is easy to overlook because she hasn’t made the headlines.
Futterman: Well, Barbora Krejcikova would certainly have signed for a Wimbledon title. The person I would nominate for this would be Danielle Collins, given where she was in January, not even seeded for the Grand Slam. For a month and a half, in March and April, she was probably the best player in the world. She would accept that, certainly.
Eccleshare: Elena Rybakina is the one – not just with the results, but during her time with then separation from long-time coach Stefano Vukov, illnesses and injuries – who will look back wondering what could have been. Even right after Stuttgart and then Madrid, it seemed like she was ready to fight four-way with Swiatek, Sabalenka and Gauff as the best players in the world by far and it just didn’t work out that way, especially at Wimbledon then that she led 1-0 over Krejcikova with three break points in the second set of their semi-final.
Hansen: The fact that Rybakina’s early season form kept her in the WTA Tour finals – and that she beat Sabalenka there – perhaps suggests she could be on the comeback path with Goran Ivanisevic in her box. Who do you think has made the biggest statement about touring in 2024 with the progress made compared to this time last year?
Eccleshare:Zheng. “Statement” is a good word for her because I feel like she’s destabilizing the players at the top of the circuit by not backing down. Players sometimes have a breakthrough season but always seem impressed; she doesn’t feel that way at all and I think she’s gone haywire in a really positive way.
Futterman:Navarro. It was almost all in one match – which she lost – the Maria Sakkari match in Indian Wells. She faced Sakkari and was hitting the ball really hard, and then played with such confidence in her tournaments. Even when she won the Hobart International, she didn’t play with that kind of confidence. Even though Gauff knew more about her than most of the other students, she hadn’t seen it coming, not like that.
Hansen: The two players at the center of the strangest beef of the year.
A season of notable comebacks and exciting breakthroughs
Hansen: It was a season of significant returns to the field, notably for Naomi Osaka, Paula Badosa and Karolina Muchova. Which of these three, all of whom have progressed in different ways, will look back with the most satisfaction?
Eccleshare: Badosa. Above all, she improved her physical form and her level. Muchova accomplished more in a single event and showed that her level is still in discussion to possibly win a Grand Slam, but Badosa seems more ready to have a full season and stay in shape than the Czech at the moment given the end by Muchova. season injury. Osaka had the same problem and I don’t think she has fully answered the level question yet. Badosa put these two things together best.
Futterman: I think the weird thing about Osaka – without knowing how bad her back injury is – I think physically she’s there. The mystery with her is that she lost her superpower, meaning the tighter the moment, the better she played. The serves she hit in the Grand Slam finals on critical points were outrageous. The Osaka of 2021 was not at all bothered by the losses of games, of sets, of her serve. It didn’t matter, she would win. This is what she was unable to do this year, whether against Swiatek at Roland Garros or against Muchova in New York. That’s when she put down the hammer. I don’t know if coach Patrick Mouratoglou will be able to get him there but we will find out.
Hansen: Among the young players on the tour, who has made the most significant progress this year?
Eccleshare: Diana Shnaider stands out. She didn’t succeed and just had one or two impressive Grand Slam results: she won a title on every surface, including a WTA 500; she reached a semi-final of the WTA 1000 in Canada. For someone who hasn’t had a lot of hype and still has a lot of room to improve in terms of Grand Slam results, she’s the one that stands out for me.
Futterman: I was super impressed with Iva Jovic, the 16-year-old American who beat Magda Linette at the US Open and was just a few points away from beating No. 29 seed Ekaterina Alexandrova in the second round. I think she has the strength to progress further and it was a great start.
WTA Tour 2024 Speed Race
Best match:
Iga Swiatek vs. Aryna SabalenkaMadrid Open Final (MF, CE, JH)
Favorite match:
Aryna Sabalenka vs. Jessica PegulaUS Open final (CE)
Donna Vekic vs. Jasmine PaoliniWimbledon semi-final (MF)
Karolina Muchova vs. Jessica PegulaUS Open semi-final (JH)
The most memorable shot (not necessarily the best!):
Karolina MuchovaThe behind-the-back lob at the US Open (CE)
Aryna SabalenkaThe cross drop shot from the set point of the US Open final (MF)
Donna Vekic”s reverse forehand returns winner on match point to Marta Kostyuk at Olympics (5-6 in video below) (JH)
This article was originally published in Athletics.
Tennis, Women’s Tennis
2024 The Athletic Media Society
