The best player of the year: Iga Swiatek
Iga Swiatek finished the season as the WTA World Number 1 for the second consecutive year. The Polish player won a Tour-leading six titles in 2023 in Doha, Stuttgart, Roland Garros, Warsaw, Beijing and the WTA Finals in Cancun. She scored a record of 68 wins to 11 defeats.
Swiatek reached the semifinals 12 times and lost in two finals in Dubai and Madrid. She becomes the sixth youngest player in WTA Tour history to finish the year as the number 1 player in the WTA Rankings in consecutive seasons, following in the footsteps of Chris Evert, Steffi Graf, Monica Seles, Martina and Caroline Wozniacki.
She won her final 11 matches of the season en route to winning titles at the WTA 1000 in Beijing and the WTA Finals in Cancun.
At Roland Garros, she beat Karolina Muchova in the final to claim the fourth Grand Slam title of her career. At the WTA Finals, she won the title without dropping a set, becoming the first player to do so since Serena Williams in 2002.
Swiatek: “2022 was so amazing that I don’t know if it’s going to be possible for me to repeat a season like that. I just did not feel at the end like I am in the shadow anymore because I knew I was having another great season. I accepted that I was not going to have a season like that, and I just looked forward”.
The most consistent Grand Slam player’s
Aryna Sabalenka
Embed from Getty ImagesAryna Sabalenka enjoyed a very consistent season, becoming the first player to reach the semifinals at all four Grand Slam tournaments in one season since Serena Williams in 2016.
Sabalenka started the year with a 13-match winning streak that included her first Grand Slam title at the Australian Open. She scored a record of 55 wins to 14 defeats. She won three titles in Adelaide at the Australian Open, Madrid, and reached three more finals in Indian Wells, Stuttgart and at the US Open.
Sabalenka beat 2022 Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina in the Australian Open final to become the second Belarusian player to win a Grand Slam singles title after Victoria Azarenka.
Sabalenka: “I am super happy that I was able to handle all those emotions and win the Australian Open title. The team is the craziest on tour. We have been through a lot of ups and downs the last year. We worked so hard. You deserve this trophy. It’s more about you than me”.
Sabalenka lost to Rybakina 6-7 4-6 in straight sets at Indian Wells in a re-match of the Australian Open. She was then defeated by Swiatek in the final of the Stuttgart Indoor Tournament in straight sets for the second consecutive year. Sabalenka lost to Karolina Muchova in the French Open semifinal in three sets, after leading 5-2 and holding a match point.
Sabalenka reached her fourth Grand Slam semifinal at Wimbledon but lost to Ons Jabeur in the semifinal after leading by a set and a break.
Sabalenka dropped just 21 games in five matches at the US Open to reach the semifinals of all four Grand Slam events in one year. She recovered from a set and a break down to beat Madison Keys in the quarter-final. She lost to eventual champion Coco Gauff in three sets in the final.
Sabalenka moved to World Number 1 tennis player for the first time at the end of the US Open, becoming the 29th player in the world and the second Belarusian player after Victoria Azarenka to achieve this feat.
Jessica Pegula
Embed from Getty ImagesJessica Pegula ended her second consecutive season in the top 5 after winning two titles at the WTA 1000 in Montreal and the WTA 250 in Seoul. The US player reached the WTA Finals championships match in Cancun and two more finals in Doha and Tokyo. She also led the US team to the title in the United Cup and reached the quarter-finals at the Australian Open and Wimbledon. Pegula scored a record of 59 wins to 18 defeats and reached the world number 1 spot in the doubles ranking in September.
The breakthrough of the season: Coco Gauff
Embed from Getty ImagesCoco Gauff started 2023 with a title in Auckland before winning her first WTA 1000 tournament in Cincinnati and her first Grand Slam singles title at the US Open at the age of 19. She has become the first US teenager to win the Major title in New York since Serena Williams in 2019.
Coco Gauff: “Being in the sentence with Serena Williams is great. It’s something that I am used to a lot. So I am not going to sit here and be like: “Oh, I am shocked but I feel like a lot of the statistics have aligned with her, and people find new things to think about. Serena is the greatest player of all time. I am not going close to that yet”.
Gauff also won her first WTA 500 title in Washington by defeating Maria Sakkari in the final.
She won 22 of her last 24 matches coming into the WTA Finals, including the longest streak of the year at tour level of 16 consecutive wins between the Cincinnati final and the Beijing semifinal.
Gauff also qualified for the WTA Finals in doubles as the Race number 1 team with Jessica Pegula. Gauff and Pegula returned to world number 1 doubles ranking after qualifying for the WTA Finals in both the singles and doubles tournaments, becoming the first players to qualify in both disciplines since Sara Errani in consecutive years in 2012 and 2013.
The comeback of the year:
Marketa Vondrousova
Embed from Getty ImagesOlympic silver medallist Marketa Vondrousova wrote tennis history by becoming the first unseeded player in history to win the Wimbledon title. The 24-year-old Czech player beat Ons Jabeur 6-4 6-4 in the final to clinch her first Grand Slam title four years after reaching the final at the 2019 French Open, where she lost to Ashleigh Barty.
Vondrousova, who was ranked world number 42, became the lowest-ranked Wimbledon champion in the Open Era. After the Wimbledon title, she climbed to the top 10 in the WTA Rankings.
Vondrousova followed in the footsteps of two other Czech-born left-handers, Martina Navratilova and Petra Kvitova, who won multiple Wimbledon titles in the past.
Vondrousova made a successful come-back from a wrist injury. She was a spectator at Wimbledon one year earlier with a cast on her left wrist.
Vondrousova: “The comeback’s are not easy. You never know what to expect. I was a tourist here (at Wimbledon in 2022). When I was coming back, I did not know what was going to happen. It seemed impossible to play at my best level again. On grass, I did not play well before. I think it was the most impossible Grand Slam for me to win, so I did not even think of it”.
Elina Svitolina
Embed from Getty ImagesElina Svitolina returned to the tour last April after giving birth to her first child. The Ukrainian player claimed her 17th title in Strasbourg before reaching the quarter-final at Roland Garros.
Svitolina beat Sofia Kenin in the third round and Victoria Azarenka in the fourth round before beating Iga Swiatek 7-5 6-7 (5-7) 6-2 in a thrilling match to reach the semifinal at Wimbledon. She then lost in the semifinal to eventual champion Vondrousova.
Karolina Muchova
Embed from Getty ImagesKarolina Muchova was sidelined by an abdominal injury between August 2021 and March 2022. She picked up an ankle injury at Roland Garros in 2022 and her ranking dropped to world number 235 in August 2022. She started the 2023 season at world number 151, but she returned to the top 100 with two consecutive quarter-finals in Dubai and Indian Wells.
Muchova advanced to her first Grand Slam final at Roland Garros, her first WTA 1000 final in Cincinnati and her third Grand Slam semifinal at the US Open. She made her debut in the top 10 last August and qualified for the WTA Finals for the first time, although she was not able to take part in this tournament due to a right wrist injury.
The newcomer’s of the year
Mirra Andreeva
Embed from Getty ImagesSixteen-year-old Mirra Andreeva climbed 359 places in the WTA Ranking from number 405 to number 46. Andreeva reached the final of the girls’ singles match at the Australian Open before losing to doubles partner Alina Korneeva in three sets. Andreeva started her professional career with a 16-match winning streak, including two ITF titles. Andreeva received a wildcard into the main draw of the WTA 1000 tournament in Madrid and won her first Tour match against Leylah Fernandez. She became the third youngest player to win a main-draw match at a WTA 1000 tournament following Coco Gauff and Cici Bellis. Andreeva beat 13th seed Beatriz Haddad Maia to achieve her first top-20 win to reach the third round. Andreeva scored her 16th professional win against Magda Linette to reach the round of 16 before losing to eventual champion Aryna Sabalenka.
Andreeva lost to Coco Gauff in the third round at Roland Garros. The Russian teenager beat Anastasia Potapova to reach the fourth round at Wimbledon, becoming the youngest player since Coco Gauff in 2019 to achieve this feat at the All-England Club.
Andreeva clinched four top 20 wins over Beatriz Haddad Maia, Magda Linette and Barbora Krejcikova twice at Wimbledon and the China Open.
Linda Noskova
Embed from Getty ImagesLinda Noskova came through the qualifying round to reach her first WTA Tour final in Adelaide before losing to eventual champion Sabalenka in her first tournament of the season. In this tournament, the Czech teenager beat Azarenka in a three-set quarter-final, winning the tie-break of the third set 8-6 after saving one match point. Noskova then beat world number 2 Jabeur in the semifinal.
Noskova finished runner-up to Nao Hibino in her second WTA Tour final on home soil in Prague and clinched her third top 10 win over her compatriot Kvitova in Cincinnati last August before losing to eventual champion Gauff.
Noskova finished the 2023 season as the youngest player in the top 50 at number 41 at the age of 19.
The doubles team of the year
Vera Zvonareva and Laura Siegemund
Embed from Getty ImagesVera Zvonareva and Laura Siegemund won the WTA Finals in Cancun to crown a very strong finish to the season. Zvonareva and Siegemund beat Nicole Melichar Martinez and Ellen Perez 6-4 6-4 in the final. They won three more titles in Washington, Ningbo and Nanchang and reached the US Finals.
Zvonareva, who gave birth to her daughter Evelina in 2016, became the first mother to win the doubles title at the WTA Finals since Cara Black in 2014. Siegmund is the first German player to win the WTA Finals doubles title.
Zvonareva: “Everything was tight and close. We got a few small opportunities to take a break. We did great on those opportunities. Every single opportunity that we had, we took advantage of”.
Coco Gauff and Jessica Pegula
Embed from Getty ImagesGauff and Pegula also performed very well in both singles and doubles in 2023 and deserve a mention. The US team reached four WTA 1000 finals. They won in Doha and Miami and finished runners-up in Madrid and Rome and ended the season at number 3 in the doubles rankings.
Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova
Embed from Getty ImagesAfter completing the Career Grand Slam in 2022, Barbora Krejicova and Katerina Siniakova started the 2023 season with their seventh Grand Slam doubles title at the Australian Open with their 6-4 6-3 win over Shuko Aoyama and Ana Shibahara.
The Czech doubles team continued their perfect start to the season with a title at Indian Wells, where they won the final over Beatriz Haddad Maia and Laura Siegemund with a scoreline of 6-1 6-7 (3-7) 10-7 in the super tie-break. They struggled with injuries in the following months and withdrew from Miami and Wimbledon and lost in the early rounds at Roland Garros and the US Open. They returned to their best form in September when they won the San Diego Open title, where Krejcikova also won the singles title.
Storm Hunter and Elise Mertens
Embed from Getty ImagesStorm Hunter and Elise Mertens were voted as the WTA Doubles Team of the Year. They started the season with a quarter-final at the Australian Open before winning two WTA 1000 titles in Rome and Guadalajara. They reached the final at the WTA 250 tournament in Birmingham and Wimbledon on grass. Hunter closed out the year ranked as the WTA Doubles year-end world number 1.
The match of the season
Embed from Getty ImagesBeatriz Haddad Maia beats Sara Sorribes Tormo 6-7 (3-7) 6-3 7-5 Roland Garros fourth round
Beatriz Haddad Maia beat Sara Sorribes Tormo 6-7 (3-7) 6-3 7-5 in the fourth round of Roland Garros in 3 hours and 51 minutes in the longest tour-level match of 2023 and the 10th longest match of the Open Era.
Haddad Maia became the first Brazilian player to reach the quarter-finals of a Grand Slam tournament since 1968 after winning the third-longest match in Roland Garros history.
Sorribes Tormo rallied from 2-5 down to win the tie-break of the first set 7-2. Haddad Maia came back from a double-break down at 0-3 in the second set, winning seven consecutive games. Haddad Maia took a 5-3 lead in the third set, but she was unable to convert three match points on Sorribes Tormo’s serve.
Haddad Maia converted her fourth match point with a left-handed forehand.
Three weeks earlier Haddad Maia lost the previous longest tour-level match of the 2023 season in the Rome WTA 1000 quarter-finals against Anhelina Kalinina 6-7 (2-7) 7-6 (8-6) 6-3 after 3 hours and 41 minutes.
Haddad Maia: “I think I work very hard on my body, so I believe in myself when we have tough moments. I had a lot of matches more than three hours in my career also. As long as the match goes, I think I am stronger. I think it’s one of my qualities”.
Best national team
Canada, winner of the Billie Jean King Cup
Embed from Getty ImagesCanada made history by winning its first Billie Jean King Cup after beating Italy 2-0 in the 2023 final in Seville. Marina Stakusic beat Martina Trevisan 7-5 6-3 in the opening match before Fernandez clinched the title with a 6-2 6-3 win over Jasmine Paolini.
The Canadian women’s team followed in the footsteps of their men’s colleagues, who won the Davis Cup Trophy last year.
Fernandez: “I am extremely happy. It’s the first time that Canada has ever won the Billie Jean King Cup and I can finally say: ‘We are world champions, and we deserve it. We have worked very hard and every year we just keep improving and it’s showing on the tennis court. It has shown on the biggest stage in the world”.
