Iga Swiatek ended the year as the World number 1 for the first time in her career. The Polish player won eight titles, including the second and third Grand Slam titles of her career at Roland Garros and the US Open. She was also victorious at WTA 1000 tournaments in Doha, Indian Wells, Miami and Rome, as well as WTA 500 tournaments in Stuttgart and San Diego. She is the first player to win six titles in a row since Justine Henin in 2007 and 2008.
Swiatek achieved a 37-match winning run between February and June, equalling the longest WTA Tour streak since 1990.
Last June she beat US teenager Coco Gauff 6-1 6-3 to claim her second career title at Roland Garros in three years. She won her 35th consecutive match, tying Venus Williams for the best winning streak this century. The Pole has become the fourth youngest player to win the French Open more than once, only Monica Seles, Steffi Graf and Chris Evert were younger. She is the youngest woman to win multiple Grand Slam titles since Maria Sharapova won her second Major at the 2006 US Open at the age of 19.
Iga Swiatek: “I am more aware of how it is to win a Grand Slam and what it takes. How every puzzle has to come together and basically every aspect of the game has to work. With that awareness, I was even more happy and even more proud of myself, because in 2020 I just felt that I was lucky. This time I felt like I really did the work”.
Swiatek then beat Ons Jabeur 6-2 7-6 (7-5) in the US Open final to become the first Polish player to win the US Open. Earlier in the tournament, Swiatek came back from 2-4 down in the third set by winning the final four games in the semifinal against Aryna Sabalenka. She has become the third woman in the past 15 years to win multiple major titles in a season on different surfaces, joining Serena Williams and Justine Henin.
“I needed to stay composed and focused on my goals. It’s mind-blowing for me. I am really proud I could handle it mentally. At the beginning, I realized that maybe I could have some good results on WTA events. I also made it to the semifinal at the Australian Open, but I was not sure if I was on the level yet to win a Grand Slam, especially at the US Open where the surface is so fast. It’s something that I wasn’t expecting for sure. It’s also a confirmation for me that sky’s the limit. I am proud but also surprised a little bit. I am just happy that I was able to do that”. Switek on her US Open win
At the WTA Finals in Fort Worth (Texas) she won the group stage beating Daria Kasatkina, Caroline Garcia and Coco Gauff before losing to Aryna Sabalenka in the semifinals.
Swiatek ended the season with 67 match wins, the most since Serena Williams in 2013. She has also become the first player to finish a season with more than 10000 ranking points since Willams in 2016.
The comeback of the year: Caroline Garcia
French player Caroline Garcia returned to her best shape in the second half of the season by winning the most prestigious title of her career at the WTA Finals in Fort Worth. Garcia beat Aryna Sabalenka 7-6 (7-4) 6-4 in the championship match to become the second French player to win the WTA Finals title after Amelie Mauresmo in 2005.
Garcia also won three more WTA tournaments at Bad Homburg, Warsaw and the WTA 1000 in Cincinnati as a qualifier. She also reached the US Open semifinals in what was her career-best performance at Grand Slam level. She started the season outside the top 70 in the WTA Ranking and ended the year at number 4.
“It’s definitely a lot of giant happiness,” Garcia said of winning the biggest title in her career at the WTA Finals. “A crazy final, a lot of intensity on every point. Just really proud of the work we did through all the year. It was a great match – really went for it. I’m really happy to win my biggest title.
The breakthrough of the year: Elena Rybakina
Elena Rybakina won her first Grand Slam title at Wimbledon after beating Ons Jabeur in the final. Earlier in the tournament, the Kazakh player defeated Simona Halep to reach her first Grand Slam final to become the youngest Wimbledon finalist since Garbine Muguruza in 2015.
After dropping the first set, Rybakina battled back to beat Jabeur to claim her first Major title. She is the first Kazakh player in history to win a Grand Slam title.
Rybakina is the fourth youngest active Grand Slam champion, older than only Swiatek, Bianca Andreescu and Emma Raducanu.
Rybakina won her third career title at Wimbledon and her first since Hobart in 2020. She had lost four finals. She also lost to Elina Svitolina in the bronze medal match at the Olympic Games in Tokyo.
Elena Rybakina on her Wimbledon triumph: “I am always very calm. I don’t know what should happen. When I was giving a speech in the end I was thinking: ‘I am going to cry now, but somehow I hold it. Maybe later when I am going alone in the room, I am going to cry somehow. Maybe because I can do deep inside. At the same time there are too many emotions. I was just trying to keep myself calm. Maybe one day you will see a huge reaction from me, but unfortunately not today”.
Rybakina opened the season by finishing runner-up to Ashleigh Barty at the WTA 500 tournament in Adelaide. She also reached her third final of the year in Portoroz before losing to Katerina Siniakova in three sets.
The historic Grand Slam performance – Ons Jabeur
Tunisia’s Ons Jabeur made a major breakthrough by becoming the first African woman in the Open Era to reach a Grand Slam singles final at Wimbledon after her three-set win over Tatjana Maria in the semifinal.
Jabeur: “I just love the atmosphere at Wimbledon. It was my main goal from the beginning of the season, and even from last year. I just love being here”.
She also finished runner-up to Iga Swiatek in the US Open final and won two WTA titles in Madrid on clay and Berlin on grass.
The African player reached a career-high ranking of world number 2 last June, becoming the first North African woman to break into the top 5 and qualify for the WTA Finals.
The Rising star of the year – Coco Gauff
Coco Gauff became the first US teenager to reach a Grand Slam final since Serena Williams. At the French Open she beat Elise Mertens in the fourth round, Sloane Stephens in the quarter-finals, and Martina Trevisan in the semifinals before losing to Iga Swiatek in straight sets in the final.
At the Canadian Open Gauff became the youngest player to reach back-to-back quarter-finals since Jennifer Capriati in 1990 and 1991. She beat Elena Rybakina and Aryna Sabalenka in third-set tie-breaks before losing to eventual champion Simona Halep in straight sets.
Gauff reached the quarter-finals at the US Open for the first time to become the youngest US player to achieve this feat since 2009. She is also the youngest player to make their debut in the top 10 of the WTA Ranking since 2006.
The rising star became the youngest player in singles since Maria Sharapova to qualify for the WTA Finals. Gauff and her teammate Jessica Pegula also qualified for the WTA Finals in the doubles tournament, becoming the first US players since sisters Serena and Venus Williams in 2009 to qualify for both the singles and doubles at the WTA Finals.
WTA doubles team of the year
Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova
The Czech team formed by Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova won three Grand Slam doubles titles at the Australian Open, Wimbledon and the US Open. With their triumph in New York over Caty McNally and Taylor Townsend, they became the second team in WTA history to complete the career Grand Slam. They were undefeated in their three round-robin matches at the WTA Finals in Fort Worth before losing to Elise Mertens and Veronika Kudemertova in the final. They finished the season with a 27-4 win-loss record.
Krejcikova and Siniakova have now won six Grand Slam doubles titles together. They have won two Roland Garros titles in 2018 and 2021, two Wimbledon titles in 2018 and 2022, the US Open in 2022 and an Australian Open title in 2022. They have joined a list of past doubles teams, who have completed a set of Grand Slam doubles titles, that includes Martina Navratilova and Pam Shriver, Serena and Venus Williams, Gigi Fernandez and Natasha Zvereva, Roberta Vinci and Sara Errani.
Barbora Krejcikova: “I am really happy that we won the final Grand Slam that we were missing. It sounds great that we have achieved such an amazing feat”.
Veronika Kudemertova and Elise Mertens
Veronika Kudemertova and Elise Mertens crowned their successful season by beating defending champions Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova to win the WTA Finals doubles title in Fort Worth. Kudemertova and Mertens reached the semifinals at the Australian Open. They won four more titles in Dubai, Doha, Miami and ‘s-Hertogenbosch.
The Billie Jean King Cup team of the year – Switzerland
Switzerland clinched the Billie Jean King Cup title for the first time in history after wins from Belinda Bencic and Jill Teichmann in the final against Australia. The Swiss team finished runner-up in 2021.
Belinda Bencic: “We were finalists last year and we were so heartbroken, but in the locker room Teichmann came to me and said: ‘Next year, we are going to do it, we are going to take it”. And we did, I am so proud”.
The match of the year
Krejcikova beats Swiatek 5-7 7-6 (7-4) 6-3 in the Ostrava final
Barbora Krejcikova rallied from a set down to beat Iga Swiatek 5-7 7-6 (7-4) 6-3 in an epic 3-hour and 16-minute final in Ostrava.
Krejcikova claimed her second title in consecutive weeks after winning the Tallinn Open. Meanwhile, Swiatek lost a final match for the first time since 2019.
Krejcikova broke to love to earn a chance to serve for the match, but she did not convert six championship points in an epic final game. The Czech player sealed the win on her seventh opportunity with her seventh ace to win the fifth singles title of her career.
Krejcikova: “It was a great atmosphere. We have been trying to offer the crowd the best match that we can. It feels great. I thank Iga for bringing the best out of me”.
Laura Samon - image via itftennis.com/ photo credi: Manuel Queimadelos
Laura Samson has become the first player born in 2008 to reach the quarter-finals of a WTA event after producing a surprise win on Tuesday.
The 16-year-old wildcard stunned second seed Katerina Siniakova 1-6, 7-5, 6-3, in the second round at the Prague Open. Her triumph occurred a day after she dropped just two games against Tara Wurth in her opening match. This week is Samson’s Tour debut after playing 10 events on the lower-level ITF circuit.
“I’m extremely surprised,” she said during her on-court interview after beating Siniakova. “I didn’t go into it as favorite. I’m so proud of myself and I hope I will continue to play like this. As I was going into the second set I thought, ‘I have nothing to lose, I didn’t play good in the first set.’ I’m not really sure when [I thought I could win], I just believed myself in the third set.”
Samson is the latest Czech player to break through following a sucessful junior career. Last year she won the Wimbledon girls’ doubles title and was runner-up in the French Open singles tournament in June. She is currently No.3 in the ITF junior rankings but has been ranked as high as No.1.
Earlier this year, Samson decided to change her name on the Tour by dropping the last three letters (ova). The reason why she did so was to avoid getting confused with another player.
“I first noticed it last year, there was a problem that I was getting strings (the) of Lyudmila Samsonova,” she told tenisovysvet.cz.
“I also talked about it with her and, for example, according to the schedule, she also sometimes thought she was playing, but it was me,”
“I would have liked the ending -ová, but unfortunately it turned out like this.”
The teenager will next take on world No.248 Oksana Selekhmeteva with the winner of that match progressing to their first WTA semi-final. 21-year-old Selekhmeteva is a former top 10 junior player who came through two rounds of qualifying to reach the main draw. She is a two-time junior Grand Slam champion in doubles.
There are five seeds remaining in the tournament, including top seed Linda Nosková who will play Germany’s Ella Seidel in her next match.
It must have seemed like the whole world was against her when Barbora Krejcikova served for the match for a third time against crowd favorite Jasmine Paolini.
But Krejcikova was only going for her 12th Grand Slam title. She was well prepared.
So, she released her patented way-out-wide serve to the smallish Paolini’s backhand, and the best the Italian could do was get her racket on the ball enough to return the serve far off the court, long and wide.
ARMS UP FOR A CHAMPION
The weight of the world was gone as Krejcikova threw her arms over her head and calmly walked to the net to greet the Wimbledon runner-up.
Now, Krejcikova was half-way home to a career Grand Slam in singles. She already owns a career Grand Slam in doubles among her dozen Grand Slam titles that also include one mixed doubles Grand Slam title.
She has won the hard ones, the French Open on clay and Wimbledon on grass.
At 28 years old, anything must look possible to this 5-10 Czech.
KREJCIKOVA COMES THROUGH UNDER PRESSURE
Paolini simply was out played in a second straight Grand Slam final, on clay and on grass. Now she faces the real tests, two straight Grand Slam tournaments on hard surfaces that might not be overly friendly to the 5-4 Paolini.
But there it was, a 6-2, 2-6, 6-4 victory for Krejcikova on Wimbledon’s famed Center Court.
After what might be called a throw-away second set for Krejcikova, she came alive in the third set, pinning Paolini to the deep corners while nailing low hard-hit balls to both corners.
Krejcikova got off to 40-0 starts on her first four service games of the decisive set and ended all four with service winners to take a 5-3 lead (with the aid of the only service break of the third set). She yielded only one point in those four service games, a double fault at 40-0 that was followed by an ace.
Of course, it was the serve again that saved the day for Krejcikova and gave her set points two and three, then sealed the deal for a spot in Wimbledon history.
—
James Beck was the 2003 winner of the USTA National Media Award for print media. A 1995 MBA graduate of The Citadel, he can be reached at Jamesbecktennis@gmail.com.
After coming close to her maiden Grand Slam title at Wimbledon, Jasmine Paolini believes consistency is key to having another shot at glory.
The 28-year-old dropped only one set en route to becoming the first Italian woman to reach a Wimbledon final. However, she was denied the title by Barbora Krejcikova, who won in three sets. Paolini was broken once in the decider which was due to a double fault from the Italian following an unsuccessful hawk-eye challenge made on her first serve. Then she failed to convert two break points when down 4-5 before Krejcikova held to seal glory.
“I started bad,” she reflected afterwards.
“I took some time and try to relax and to come back in the second set stronger to try to push the ball more because I was a little bit controlling too much, and I missed a lot of shots.
“She was playing, honestly, very good the first set. She was serving really, really good. High percentage of first serves.
“It was tough but I think I did better than the last final (at the French Open), but still it’s not enough.”
Prior to Saturday, Paolini had scored wins over former US Open champion Bianca Andreescu, Medison Keys (via retirement) and a marathon victory over Donna Vedic. She has now won 15 Grand Slam matches in 2024 compared to just one last season.
The defeat comes less than two months after the French Open where Paolini contested her first major final but lost in two sets to world No.1 Iga Swiatek. Since the start of this season, she has risen more than 20 places in the rankings and will reach No.5 on Monday.
Despite being in her late 20s, the Italian is producing some of her best tennis on the Tour. Something she credits to a combination of things.
“I improved my game a little bit. I believe more in myself. I improved my serve. I think I improve the return.” She explained.
“I think physically I’m better than two years ago. I’ve been working with a new fitness coach for one-and-a-half years.
“There are many things, I think. Not just one. I think also winning matches helps a lot.”
Whilst she is heading in the right direction on the Tour, Paolini has vowed not to get too ahead of herself.
“Sometimes I’m a little bit scared to dream too much.” she said.
“I’m going back, trying to practice and stay in the present. This is the goal for me and my team, to try to keep this level as much as possible.
“If I keep this level, I think I can have the chance to do great things.
“Today I was dreaming of holding the (Wimbledon) trophy but it didn’t go well.
“I’m just enjoying the position where I am right now.”
Paolini has won 30 out of 43 matches on the Tour so far this season.
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