Mumbai: In the middle of her title-winning run at the WTA Wuhan Open last month with the then world No.1 Iga Swiatek away on her coaching reboot, Aryna Sabalenka underlined a “much-needed”” occurrence in women’s tennis.
“Having this rivalry with Iga,” the Belarusian said, “is something big for tennis and something much-needed, I would say, in women’s tennis.”
For the last few years as men’s tennis thrived on rivalries, the women’s tour, a wide-open field overflowing with surprise success stories, craved something similar. That has come about in 2024, in a season that saw Swiatek stay head and shoulders above the rest on top of the rankings for a large part, only for Sabalenka to take her down right at the end, present a new year-ending world No.1 and put a pin on her dominance.
Women’s tennis in the 2024 season, which drew to a close in Riyadh on Saturday with Coco Gauff becoming the youngest WTA Finals champion since a 17-year-old Maria Sharapova, was much more than just that, though. It featured high-profile coaching shake-ups, the rise of a Chinese who tends to ruffle feathers, some breakthrough artists and the comeback of a former Grand Slam champion.
Sabalenka vs Swiatek
It’s no coincidence that one of the most high-quality matches on the women’s tour this year featured its two best players. When Swiatek beat Sabalenka 7-5, 4-6, 7-6(7) in that WTA 1000 Madrid final, she was in the middle of a 21-match unbeaten streak that swept up clay-court titles in Madrid, Rome (also beating Sabalenka in the final) and the French Open. That was Swiatek red-hot on the red dirt. Until Sabalenka sizzled on hard courts.
The tipping point in this flipped script came around the Paris Olympics. Swiatek was stunned in the semi-final as a runaway favourite for gold. The defeat seemingly crushed the Pole and pulled her season down. Having opted to skip the Olympics, Sabalenka then rose and roared into ascendancy.
The Belarusian brushed Swiatek aside in Cincinatti — Sabalenka was ranked 3rd then — before her US Open triumph. That was the Australian Open champion’s second Slam of the season, the most among women. Swiatek has grabbed five WTA titles in 2024, the most among women. Take your pick.
Coaching spotlight
High-profile coaching changes flew thick and fast in the second half of this season. Swiatek’s Olympics post mortem made her snap her three-year association with Tomasz Wiktorowski. After plenty of pondering and time away, Swiatek brought in Wim Fissette, her first non-Polish coach who has been with multiple former world No.1s in the past. Still in its early days, the new partnership had two good wins and one lop-sided defeat at the WTA Finals.
A new team that tasted instant success at the season-ending event was Gauff and Matt Daly. The 2023 US Open champion split with Brad Gilbert after failing to defend her title this year, which had been largely quiet for the world No.3 until she signed off with a bang (and a pay check of $4,805,000) in Riyadh.
Elena Rybakina, the 2022 Wimbledon champion, had a more dramatic coaching shuffle. She split with her long-time coach Stefano Vukov just before the US Open. Crashing out in the second round there and not playing thereafter, Rybakina roped in Goran Ivanisevic, the former Wimbledon champion and coach of Novak Djokovic. The two will begin working in the off-season, and will draw increased spotlight next year.
A Chinese rises
Qinwen Zheng’s biggest accomplishment before 2024 was winning the Asian Games singles gold last year. Plenty of upgrades for the 22-year-old Chinese a year on. She made the final of the Australian Open, became the Olympic singles champion and finished runner-up at the WTA Finals. She will end the season on a career-high No.5.
Since Wimbledon, Zheng has scripted a 31-6 win-loss record, the most wins in that period among women. A strong personality, the Chinese has had a fair few run-ins on and off the court with fellow players, adding some spice — much-needed, again — to the women’s tour.
Breakthrough season
Women’s tennis tends to frequently dish out breakthrough faces. The most notable among them this year is Jasmine Paolini who, at 28, has taken her singles career a level up. After not going beyond the second round in any Slam from 2019 to 2023, the Italian blazed through to back-to-back finals, at the French Open and Wimbledon. After not ending any season inside the top 30, she will walk away from 2024 as the world No.4.
Similar, albeit less stunning, ranking upswings were engineered by American world No.8 Emma Navarro, the US Open semi-finalist who’s had her most fruitful season, and Russian Mirra Andreeva, who entered the last four in Paris and ends the year with a ranking higher (16) than her age (17).
Osaka’s comeback
For over a year, the women’s game felt the absence of Naomi Osaka. The four-time Slam champion was back in 2024, not quite as the same old force but, as her French Open classic with Swiatek showed, with shades of it. Osaka too made an interesting coaching shuffle, joining forces with Patrick Mouratoglou late in the season.
Plenty to look forward to in the women’s game next season, then. Not least the renewal of the Sabalenka-Swiatek rivalry.
“To keep this competition going would be really good for tennis,” Sabalenka said in Wuhan.
