2024 WTA season review: Aryna Sabalenka, Jasmine Paolini star as Qinwen Zheng shocks Iga Swiatek on her way to gold
Published 27/12/2024 at 09:10 GMT
The 2024 WTA Tour season featured memorable moments aplenty. Aryna Sabalenka ruled at the hard-court Grand Slams, Qinwen Zheng won Olympic gold and Coco Gauff finished the year with victory at the WTA Finals. Iga Swiatek also added to her Grand Slam collection with victory at the French Open. We look back on some of the standout moments from the last year in women's tennis.
Highlights: Dominant Swiatek defeats Paolini to win French Open title
Video credit: TNT Sports
It was another memorable season on the WTA Tour.
There were three different champions at the four Grand Slams, a new year-end No. 1, a new WTA Finals champion, and shocks aplenty at the Olympics.
As the calendar counts down towards the new year and the fast-approaching Australian Open, we look back on 10 of the standout moments from the 2024 WTA tennis season…
Sabalenka moves clear
Aryna Sabalenka was the queen of the hard-court Grand Slams in 2024.
At the Australian Open, she demolished the competition with her powerful hitting, not losing a set and only being pushed to one tie-breaker in the semi-finals against Coco Gauff.
It was almost processional as Sabalenka dropped just 31 games in the defence of her title.
It was a similar story at the US Open as Sabalenka swept all aside in ruthless fashion, dropping just one set on the way to her third Grand Slam title.
She might have won even more in 2024 had illness not ruined her French Open chances and injury not forced her out of Wimbledon.
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Top 5 shots 2024 Australian Open - The best shots from women's singles champion Aryna Sabalenka
Video credit: TNT Sports
Swiatek wins French Open again
Iga Swiatek’s year might not have finished well, but as she said recently it was "pretty perfect" to start.
Swiatek won all five of her 2024 titles before Wimbledon, including triumphing in a superb Madrid Open final against Sabalenka and then lifting the French Open for a fourth time.
It was largely another Swiatek clay masterclass in Paris that included saving a match point in a hard-fought second-round win over Naomi Osaka.
The final lasted just 68 minutes as Swiatek swept past Jasmine Paolini.
"I love this place, I wait every year to play here," said Swiatek afterwards.
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Top 5 plays from 2024 French Open champion Iga Swiatek
Video credit: TNT Sports
Gauff shines at WTA Finals
In 2023, it was the summer of Coco Gauff on the WTA Tour, but not this year.
Gauff lost early at the Paris Olympics, won one match across Toronto and Cincinnati, and bowed out of the US Open in the last 16 as the defending champion.
But after making a coaching change, she bounced back impressively in the final stretch of the year, winning 13 of 15 matches and triumphing in Beijing and at the WTA Finals.
Gauff revealed at the WTA Finals how criticism of her form spurred her on.
"A lot of people were critiquing my season, you know, 'flop era.' I know all the Twitter terms. I think for me it was just motivation. I'm the author of my own story, and I'm not going to let anybody write me off."
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Coco Gauff
Image credit: Getty Images
Brits climb rankings
Katie Boulter had a strong season with two titles in San Diego and Nottingham and another final in Hong Kong. She finishes the year ranked at No. 24 in the world rankings and with more to come.
"The more I play on bigger stages, the more I come out of my shell," she said in November.
Emma Raducanu produced some of her best tennis at the Billie Jean King Cup in 2024.
The British No. 2 went 5-0 at the competition, including winning all three of her matches at the finals in straight sets.
She said she feels in a "good spot" ahead of the new season and will be looking to climb up the rankings soon.
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Emma Raducanu
Image credit: Getty Images
Paolini has year to remember
What a year for Jasmine Paolini.
She started it ranked at No. 30 in the world and having never made it past the third round of a Grand Slam.
She finishes it at world No. 4 having made two Grand Slam singles finals, helped Italy win the Billie Jean King Cup, won a first WTA 1000 title, won Olympic doubles gold, and reached a Grand Slam doubles final.
"It's a dream season," she said after the Billie Jean King Cup triumph.
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'The best days of my life' - 'Proud' Paolini on French Open journey after defeat in final
Video credit: TNT Sports
Swiatek shocked as Qinwen wins gold
Having won the French Open for the last three years in a row, Iga Swiatek went into the Paris Olympics at Roland-Garros as a heavy favourite to win gold.
But in one of the biggest upsets of the year she was beaten in straight sets in the semi-finals by China’s Qinwen Zheng, who went on to beat Croatia’s Donna Vekic in the final.
For Qinwen it was the biggest title of her career so far. For Swiatek, who went on to take bronze, it was a heartbreaking loss.
"I probably cried for like six hours, it was really tough," she said afterwards.
"Sometimes it feels like it’s sport and it’s tennis and usually I’m able to have the distance to all of it and just understand that it’s only one part of my life but this time it was like somebody really broke my heart, you know? So it’s crazy, honestly."
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'An upset for the times' - Zheng stuns Swiatek to make history
Video credit: TNT Sports
Swiatek’s doping test
News broke after the Billie Jean King Cup Finals that Swiatek had tested positive for banned substance trimetazidine (TMZ) in August.
The world No. 2, who helped Poland to the BJK Cup semis, was given a month-long ban of which she served 22 days when she missed the Asia swing.
Swiatek said she has "fought the toughest battle of my life" and "the whole thing will definitely stay with me for the rest of my life".
She will be free to play from the start of 2025.
Coaching changes
Some significant coaching pairings were formed towards the end of 2024.
Iga Swiatek parted ways with coach Tomasz Wiktorowski after three highly successful years together and brought in Wim Fisette, who was previously working with Naomi Osaka, who is now with Serena Williams’ former coach Patrick Mouratoglou.
Elena Rybakina has started working with Goran Ivanisevic following his split with Novak Djokovic and Coco Gauff ended her partnership with Brad Gilbert after her disappointing US summer and is with Matt Daly.
Donna Vekic has also added Osaka's former coach Sascha Bajin to her team.
Krejcikova wins Wimbledon
Barbora Krejcikova was the surprise Grand Slam winner of the year at Wimbledon.
The former French Open champion looked to be trending downward in the first half of the season as she won just three matches in the time between the Australian Open and Wimbledon.
But she hit top form at Wimbledon with seven victories in two weeks, taking out four top-15 seeds in a row, to claim the second major of her career.
"I don't have any words right now - it's just unbelievable," said Krejcikova afterwards.
"It's definitely the best day of my tennis career and also the best day of my life."
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Barbora Krejcikova of the Czech Republic poses with the champions trophy after defeating Jasmine Paolini of Italy in the womens singles final on Day Thirteen of The Championships Wimbledon 2024
Image credit: Getty Images
Pegula makes breakthrough
Jessica Pegula’s summer hard-court run is easy to overlook due to everything that happened on either side of it.
But for six weeks in North America Pegula was really, really good.
She won 15 of 17 matches, defending her Canadian Open title and then losing to Sabalenka in the Cincinnati final, before beating Swiatek at the US Open to finally make her first Grand Slam semi-final.
She recovered from 6-1 2-0 to win her semi before falling to Sabalenka in the final.
It was one of the most impressive stretches from a player all season.
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