For women, the WTA Tour began 2023 with the top ten as follows:
- Iga Swiatek
- Ons Jabeur
- Jessica Pegula
- Caroline Garcia
- Aryna Sabalenka
- Maria Sakkari
- CoCo Gauff
- Daria Kasatkina
- Veronika Kudermetova
- Simona Halep
In lead up to the Australian Open, Aryna Sabalenka and Belinda Bencic won in Adelaide and Coco Gauff won Auckland tournament.
Sabalenka continued that form into Melbourne Park where she contested and won her first Grand Slam tournament final against reigning Wimbledon champion Elena Rybakina.
Iga Swiatek collected her first title for the year in February - Doha, and a week later was again a finalist - this time in the first WTA 1000 event for 2023. Barbora Krejcikova upset the top seed.
March saw Indian Wells, the second 1000 event, and the opportunity for Rybakina to exact revenge on Sabalenka , which she did.
A fortnight later Rybakina was defeated in the Miami 1000 final by Petra Kvitova.
Rybakina had moved herself into the top ten.
The clay court season began in April with Ons Jabeur winning on the green stuff in Charleston, before the Billie Jean King Cup qualifiers were sorted out on the red clay and some hard courts.
7 of the 9 seeded nations won through to the finals, with many outstanding individual performances including from Nuria Parrizas Diaz (Spain), Marketa Vondrousova (Czech Republic), Caroline Garcia (France), Leylah Fernandez (Canada), Jessica Pegula (USA), and Elena Rybakina (Kazakhstan).
Following that were two tournament finals featuring the two highest ranked players.
Stuttgart 500 was won by Iga Swiatek in straight sets over Aryna Sabalenka, who struck back the next week in a three set classic 1000 Madrid victory.
Leading into Roland Garros, May began with Elena Rybakina winning the 1000 Italian Open. Elina Svitolina, after returning to the tour in April, won in Strasbourg, and Lucia Bronzetti broke through for her first WTA title in Morocco.
Iga Swiatek took three sets, but was victorious over Karolina Muchova from the Czech Republic at Roland Garros, successfully defending her title,
Swiatek now had three Roland Garros trophies and a US Open crown in her cabinet.
June, and the grass court season preceding Wimbledon.
Titles were won by Ekaterina Alexandrova in Rosmalen, Katie Boulter in Nottingham (her first), Petra Kvitova in Berlin, Jelena Ostapenko in Birmingham, Madison Keys in Eastbourne, and Katerina Siniakova in Bad Homburg.
July was highlighted by Wimbledon, and Ons Jabeur was a defeated finalist for the second successive year.
Czech Marketa Vondrousova, in her first major final, tasted ultimate success.
The win rocketed her into the top ten.
Remaining events in July included 4 back on clay, and these were all won by first time champions.
Meanwhile, Iga Swiatek won her fourth title of the year, in her home land of Poland.
CoCo Gauff began her North American hard court run with victory in Washington D.C.
Her doubles partner Jessica Pegula captured the 1000 Canadian Open in the first week of August.
Gauff followed with the 1000 Cincinnati Open.
Thea US Open was the culmination in September, and Gauff saluted, defeating Aryna Sabalenka in the final, for her first Grand Slam singles trophy.
Sabalenka achieved the world number one ranking by making the final.
September’s remaining North American tournaments were 500 San Diego, California, and 1000 Guadalajara, Mexico, where Barbora Krejcikova and Maria Sakkari respectively triumphed.
The tour was then focused on Asia for the rest of the year.
Veronika Kudermetova won her second title, the 500 Pan Pacific Open, in Japon, defeating Jessica Pegula in the final.
October began with the 1000 China Open in Beijing, and Iga Swiatek received her fifth trophy of the year.
Next, Zheng Qinwen won in Zhengzhou, Leylah Fernandez in Hong Kong, Jessica Pegula in Seoul, and Katerina Siniakova in Nanchang.
Before the year end championships, two more titles were decided - Tamara Korpatsch was a first time champion in Romania, and Elise Mertens won in Tunisia.
The top performed players in 2023 qualified for the WTA Finals and the WTA Elite Trophy.
Players not qualified for the WTA Finals were able to fight for the WTA Elite Trophy, and it was Brazil’s Beatriz Haddad Maia who prevailed in the final over China’s Zheng Qinwen.
The WTA Finals would decide the year number one, and the final was contested by Iga Swiatek and Jessica Pegula.
Iga Swiatek was victorious, and collected her sixth title for the year.
Top ten as the 2023 season closed:
- Iga Swiatek (unchanged from year start)
- Aryna Sabalenka (+3)
- Coco Gauff (+4)
- Elena Rybakina (+17)
- Jessica Pegula (-2)
- Ons Jabeur (-4)
- Marketa Vondrousova (+85)
- Karolina Muchova (+143)
- Maria Sakkari (-3)
- Barbora Krejcikova (+12)
In November Canada defeated Italy in the Billie Jean King Cup final held in Seville, Spain.
No comments:
Post a Comment