The 2024 WTA season began with the top 10 as follows:
- Iga Swiatek
- Aryna Sabalenka
- CoCo Gauff
- Elena Rybakina
- Jessica Pegula
- Ons Jabeur
- Marketa Vondrousova
- Maria Sakkari
- Karolina Muchova
- Barbora Krejcikova
January saw titles won by Elena Rybakina, CoCo Gauff, Jelena Ostapenko and Emma Navarro.
Then the first Grand Slam tournament was held in Melbourne.
Aryna Sabalenka successfully defended her Australian Open crown, winning the final against Zheng Qinwen.
February, and Ostapenko won her second title for 2024 in Linz, Austria.
Rybakina also doubled up with triumph in Abu Dhabi.
Diana Shnaider captured her first title on the WTA Tour in Hua Hin, Thailand.
The first WTA 1000 tournament for 2024 was hosted in Doha, Qatar, and world number one, Swiatek, grabbed the trophy.
Other winners in the month weee Karolina Pliskova, Jasmine Paolini, Katie Boulter, and Yuan Yue, the latter collecting her first WTA Tour title in Austin, Texas.
The USA became the spotlight in March as the Sunshine Double featured the games best with two prestigious WTA 1000 events.
Indian Wells enabled Iga Swiatek to again reign supreme, dominating Maria Sakkari in the final.
Miami gave the American fans plenty to cheer about as the home nation’s Danielle Collins won the final against Elena Rybakina.
Collins continued her dazzling form to begin April, winning in Charleston.
The Billie Jean King Cup qualifiers were determined as Australia, Poland, Great Britain, USA, Japan, Germany, Slovakia, and Romania.
Titles to Camila Osorio, Sloane Stephens, another for Elena Rybakina (3 for the year) and Iga Swiatek’s third WTA 1000 win for 2024, overcoming Aryna Sabalenka in the Madrid final.
May began as April concluded, with Swiatek claiming her fourth WTA 1000 title of the year - in Rome she defeated Sabalenka in the final (second tournament in a row she had done this) to collect the Italian Open.
It was the perfect warm up for Roland Garros, where Iga won her third clay court major. Jasmine Paolini lost in her first Grand Slam final.
In between Rome and Paris, Americans Madison Keys and Peyton Stearns won titles in Strasbourg and Rabat respectively.
It was the first WTA Tour title for Stearns.
Grass in June, and in the lead up to Wimbledon, Liudmila Samsonova won in the Netherlands, and fellow Russians Daria Kasatkina and Diana Shnaider won titles in Germany and Eastbourne respectively.
Katie Boulter won Nottingham, while Jessica Pegula prevailed in Berlin, and Yulia Putintseva collected the Birmingham chocolates.
Wimbledon created some firsts - Barbora Krejcikova burst through to take her second Grand Slam title, adding to the 2021 Roland Garros triumph.
Jasmine Paolini was runner-up, and became the first female player to be a Roland Garros and Wimbledon finalist, in the same year, since Serena Williams in 2016.
Continuing in July, post Wimbledon, clay was the surface, and it favoured Zheng Qinwen,in Palermo, Diana Shnaider in Budapest, Magda Linette in Prague, and prodigious young talent Mirra Andreeva, whose first WTA Tour title was delivered in Iaşi, Romania.
Then the Paris Olympics, where Roland Garros saw Zheng Qinwen follow her Palermo form with a gold medal, defeating silver medalist Donna Vekic in the final.
August returned to North America, and two WTA 1000 tournaments - Jessica Pegula defeated fellow American Amanda Anisimova in the Canadian Open final, and Pegula followed up with a finals loss to Aryna Sabalenka in the Cincinnati Open final.
Linda Noskova won in Monterrey,for a first WTA Tour title, and McCartney Kessler took her first WTA Tour title trophy home from Cleveland.
Thea 2024 US Open was next, and Aryna Sabalenka proved once again her hard court credentials, by capturing her first New York major, and second Grand Slam tournament for 2024.
Her vanquished opponent was again Jessica Pegula.
Post US Open, tournaments were scattered around the world for September.
Magdalena Frech won in Mexico), Sonay Kartal in Tunisia, and Rebecca Sramkova in Thailand. For all three it was the first WTA Tour title.
Beatriz Haddad Maia won in South Korea.
The China Open, a WTA 1000 event, began at the end of September and concluded in the first week of October.
CoCo Gauff defeated Karolina Muchova in the final.
Concentration for the rest of October remained in Asia, particularly China.
The exception was Zeynep Sonmez winning her first WTA Tour title in Mexico.
Aryna Sabalenka defeated Zheng Qinwen in the final of Wuhan Open, a WTA 1000 tournament. Thea pair had met in the Australian Open final earlier the year, for the same outcome.
Still in China, Daria Kasatkina won the Ningbo Open, while Suzan Lamens travelled to Japan to win the nations Open, her first WTA Tour title.
Japan saw Zheng Qinwen continue her fine form, winning in Tokyo.
In China, Olga Danilovic won the Guangzhou Open, and Viktorija Golubic won the Jiangxi Open in Jiujiang.
Diana Shnaider won the Hong Kong Open, her fourth title for the year.
November arrived, and the WTA Finals in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia - the eight nest performed players of 2024 gathered, Aryna Sabalenka the hot favourite to win the trophy and finish the year as world number one.
Well, things began solidly for Sabalenka, but CoCo Gauff ruined the party.
Gauff defeated Iga Swiatek in the round robin series, ensuring that Swiatek wouldn’t reach the semi finals and have a chance of finishing world number one.
Then Gauff knocked out Sabalenka in the semis, proceeding afterwards to win the final against Zheng Qinwwn.
Gauff collected the Billie Jean King trophy for her performances in winning the WTA Finals.
Aryna Sabalenka ended the year as number one, the top ten below ( year start ranking in brackets)
- Aryna Sabalenka (2)
- Iga Swiatek (1)
- CoCo Gauff (3)
- Jasmine Paolini (29)
- Zheng Qinwen (14)
- Elena Rybakina (4)
- Jessica Pegula (5)
- Emma Navarro (31)
- Daria Kasatkina (18)
- Barbora Krejcikova (10)
The year wound up with Italy winning its second successive Billie Jean King Cup by defeating Slovakia in the final.
Player of the year: Aryna Sabalenka by virtue of winning two majors and two WTA 1000 tournaments.
Semi finalist at the WTA Finals
Quarter finalist at Roland Garros.
Finalist at two other WTA 1000 tournaments
Finalist at a WTA 500 tournament
Year end #1.
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