Tennis has finally breathed its last. After four Grand Slams, another 56 on the WTA Tour and the 2024 Paris Olympics trivia, the tennis calendar enters an off-season that usually finds players first in the Maldives and then on the practice courts before the start of the new campaign. in Australia and New Zealand in late December.
In the 2024 WTA season preview, the tennis team looks back at Aryna Sabalenko and Iga Swiatek’s battle for world number one; Zheng Qinwen’s breakthrough; Evolution of Coco Gauff; An appearance by Jasmine Paolini and much more.
They also pick their best and favorite matches, surprises and moments from another remarkable year in tennis.
Be sure to chime in with your picks in the comments – there’s a lot of tennis to explore.
How Sabalenka got to world number one – and how Swiatek can get back there
James Hansen: Sabalenkova’s official ascent to world No. 1 was deeply disappointing: an unannounced reduction in ranking points for not participating in mandatory tournaments moved Sabalenkova above Swiatek one Monday morning in October. Still, it’s been a while coming, especially for Swiatek, who thought she was going to “lose it like two weeks ago” at the WTA Tour Finals press conference.
Matúš Futterman: Evolution and rest. She has expanded the biomechanical corrections of her serve by adding more variety to her game. Her biggest points in the US Open semifinals and finals against Emma Navarro and Jessica Pegul came from short angles, drop shots and volleys, not the frozen rope winners she used to blast Zheng Qinwen off the court in Melbourne. She also missed Wimbledon, the Olympics and other weeks, the latter due to Belarus’ elimination from the Billie Jean King Cup, which meant she had time to rest when everyone else was flying and playing.
Charlie Eccleshare: Missing the Olympics and Wimbledon was a big deal, although at the time missing Wimbledon felt like a huge deal. She talked about taking a break in March (after the death of hockey player Konstantin Koltsov, her ex-boyfriend), but going onto the American hard court fresh was a huge advantage, while Swiatek looked like she was running out of steam. around the US Open.
Hansen: The Olympics didn’t define the season, but it probably had more of an impact than expected at the start of the year. Swiatek, who unexpectedly left for Zheng there, still finished the year with the most top-10 titles on the WTA circuit, as well as the highest winning percentage; was world number one from the beginning of the year until the end of October. She brought in Wim Fissett as her new coach, and the two talked about tweaking her game in the off-season to prevent her defeats from looking the same and unstoppable, as had started to happen around Wimbledon. She looks ready to charge.
Eccleshare: When we spoke in Riyadh at the WTA Tour Finals, Sabalenkova said that when she was world number one (just before the end of the 2023 season), she felt like “for five minutes”, she felt like she was pretending. She is now seen as someone who should dominate and she showed that in Melbourne and then especially on the hard court towards the end of the year. Swiatek wasn’t where she was expected to be in the second half of the year and will likely bounce back.
Matt Futterman: I don’t know if I’ll see anyone else challenging Swiatek and Sabalenka to go back and forth at world number one in the next few years. The X factor is Coco Gauff.
The season of two Gauff coaches and thoughts on the WTA top 10
Hansen: If you were to analyze Gauff’s season — the WTA Tour Finals title, the WTA 1000 in Beijing, the 250 in Auckland and the women’s doubles title at the French Open — as Gauff, what would you say?
Futterman: She would not sign for these results and will be disappointed accordingly. I think she expected to continue to rack up Slams, or at least win one more – and she didn’t make it to the Slam finals, which she wants.
Eccleshare: I think you’d have to divide it into pre-Brad Gilbert and post-Brad Gilbert, given the nature of her Wimbledon and US Open losses and the improvements she’s made since then on her serve and forehand, although her serve can still leave her in seemingly unexpected ways. moments. Gauff beat Navarro in the semifinals when she won Auckland, so her elimination from two consecutive Grand Slams was a significant measure for Navarro of where she was before her split with Gilbert.
Hansen: Let’s stay on topic: Who among the WTA top 10 would sign up for the season and who wouldn’t?
(Pre-Billie Jean King Cup Records)
Eccleshare: Zheng and Paolini are the standouts. I think anyone outside the top three would have signed up for Paolini’s exceptional year with two Grand Slam finals, Olympic doubles gold alongside Sara Errani and then also winning the Billie Jean King Cup with Italy. Then Zheng, Olympic singles gold medalist, Australian Open final, those are the two that really got going. Navarro as well because she keeps making really steady progress and is easy to overlook because she hasn’t had that many headlines.
Futterman: Well, Barbora Krejčíková would definitely sign for the Wimbledon title. The person I would nominate for that would be Danielle Collins, given where she was in January, not even seeded for Grand Slams. For a month and a half in March and April, she was probably the best player in the world. She would definitely take that.
Eccleshare: Elena Rybakina is the one – not even just with the results, but in her time with long-time coach Stefan Vukov, illness and injury and then parting ways with him – who will look back and wonder what could have been. Even just after Stuttgart and then in Madrid, it looked like she was ready to have a four-way tie with Swiatek, Sabalenko and Gauff as the best players in the world by quite a distance, and it just didn’t work out that way, especially at Wimbledon when she led Krejcikova 1-0 in three break points in the second semi-final set.
Hansen: The fact that Rybakina kept her in the WTA Tour finals earlier in the season – and that she beat Sabalenka there – perhaps suggests she could be on her way back to boxing Goran Ivanisevic. Who has made the biggest statement for you on the 2024 Tour with the progress they’ve made since this time last year?
Eccleshare: Zheng. “Declaration” is a good word for her because I feel like she’s at the top of the tournament restless players because she didn’t take a step back. Sometimes players have a breakout season but still look overwhelmed; she doesn’t feel that way at all and I think she gave a really positive nose out of the joint.
Futterman: Navarro. It was almost all in one match – which she lost – to Maria Sakkari in Indian Wells. She went toe-to-toe with Sakkari and hit 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 such confidence. Even though Gauff knew more about her than most from their junior days, she didn’t see it coming, not like this.
Hansen: The two players at the center of the weirdest beef of the year.
A season of remarkable comebacks and exciting discoveries
Hansen: This has been a season of high-profile comebacks for Naomi Osaka, Paul Bados and Karolín Muchová, among others. Which of these three, who have made progress in different ways, will look back with the greatest satisfaction?
Eccleshare: Badass. She improved her condition and level the most. Mucha achieved more in a single event and showed her level is still in the discussion for a possible Grand Slam win, but Badosa looks more ready to go the full season and stay as fit as the Czech at the moment given Mucha’s end. offseason injury. Osaka had the same problem and I don’t think she has fully answered the level question yet. Badosa combined these two things best.
Futterman: I think the strange thing about Osaka – without knowing how bad his back injury is – I think he’s right there physically. The mystery with her is that she lost her superpower, which was that the tighter the moment, the better she played. The serves she hit in Grand Slam points finals were outrageous. Osaka from 2021 was absolutely not bothered by the loss of games, sets, or her serves. It didn’t matter, she would win. She failed to do that at times this year, either against Swiatek at the French Open or against Mucha in New York. That’s when she put down the hammer. I don’t know if coach Patrick Mouratoglou will get her there, but we’ll find out.
Hansen: Which of the younger players on tour has made the most significant strides this year?
Eccleshare: Diana Shnaider stands out. She didn’t go through and only had one or two impressive Slam results: she won a title on every surface, one of them at the WTA 500; advanced to the semifinals of the WTA 1000 in Canada. For someone who hasn’t had a huge amount of hype and still has a lot of room for improvement in terms of her Grand Slam results, she’s the one that stands out to me.
Futterman: I was impressed with Iva Jovic, the 16-year-old American who defeated Magda Linette at the US Open and was only a few points away from 29th seed Ekaterina Alexandrova in the second round. I think he has the strength to move forward and that was a good start.
WTA Tour 2024 Speed Run
The 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-finals (MF)
Karolina Muchová vs Jessica Pegulasemi-finals US Open (JH)
The most memorable (not necessarily the best!) shot:
Karolina MuchováBackhand lob at the US Open (CE)
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Aryna SabalenkaCross court shot at set point US Open Final (MF)
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Donna VekicBackhand forehand return winner towards Marta Kostyuk at the Olympics (5-6 in video below) (JH)
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This article originally appeared in The Athletic.
Tennis, women’s tennis
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