Handing out the 2024 WTA awards
By Joey Dillon
The IX: Tennis Tuesday with Joey Dillon, Dec. 10, 2024
Howdy, y’all, Happy Tennis Tuesday! We’re continuing the offseason here, and it’s crazy to think we only have a few weeks until the 2025 WTA campaign kicks off Down Under! Yesterday, the tour announced their season award winners, and while some made sense, others did not. Let’s break down the 2024 WTA awards:
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Player of the Year:
Nominees: Aryna Sabalenka, Iga Swiatek, Coco Gauff, Jasmine Paolini, Zheng Qinwen
WTA Winner: Aryna Sabalenka
My pick: Aryna Sabalenka
There were really only two picks here in Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek. Combined, they won three of the four Grand Slams and were the only two players ranked No. 1 this year. However, Sabalenka didn’t even play Wimbledon and amassed a 56-14 win-loss record this year — in Dubai to Donna Vekic just after winning the Australian Open. She won four titles this year (Australian Open, Cincinnati, U.S. Open, Wuhan) and also reached three championship matches in Brisbane, Madrid and Rome. To me, ending the year ranked No. 1 adds a significant amount of weight to awarding this honor, and the sheer consistency — especially at the Grand Slams — Sabalenka had was simply too good compared to Swiatek (18-1 vs. 15-3). However, their duels this year — especially their Madrid final that Swiatek won saving championship points — is hopefully a great omen for what could be a powerhouse rivalry in 2025 and beyond.
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Doubles Team of the Year:
Nominees: Erin Routliffe/Gabriela Dabrowski, Katerina Siniakova/Taylor Townsend, Jasmine Paolini/Sara Errani, Lyudmyla Kichenok/Jelena Ostapenko, Hsieh Su-Wei/Elise Mertens, Anna Danilina/Irina Khromacheva
WTA Winner: Jasmine Paolini/Sara Errani
My pick: Katerina Siniakova
Here, you might be thinking, “Joey, it’s doubles team” and while you’re right, there was no better doubles player this year than Katerina Siniakova. She was so good this year, she probably would’ve won titles playing one vs. two. Slightly kidding, but the Czech continues to pad her career that should be a shoo-in for the International Tennis Hall of Fame when she hangs up her racquet. Not only did she amass her greatest number of Grand Slam wins in a single season (19-2 record with two titles and two semifinals), it was her consistency with a large assortment of partners that really sealed the deal here. Armed with partner Storm Hunter in the beginning of the year, the duo seemed to be one of the teams to dominate the year before the Australian ruptured her Achilles and was out the rest of the year. Siniakova didn’t fully commit to a single partner the rest of 2024, but ultimately won five titles with five different partners:
Oh, you can also plug in her second Olympic gold medal, this time in mixed doubles with ex-boyfriend Tomas Machac too. Siniakova qualified for the WTA Finals with Townsend, but finished No. 12 with Hunter even though they stopped playing in Indian Wells. She also would have been in the top 15 with Gauff but didn’t appear because their Roland Garros win was their only event played together. Yes, the title is for doubles team, but with the year Siniakova had and the lack of any one team dominating, could an exception have been made?
Most Improved Player:
Nominees: Emma Navarro, Anna Kalinskaya, Danielle Collins, Diana Shnaider, Marta Kostyuk
WTA Winner: Emma Navarro
My pick: Diana Shnaider
This is the award where the WTA went wrong. Hear me out: Jasmine Paolini probably should have been nominated here and received the award. A WTA 1000 title in Dubai and back-to-back Grand Slam finals at Roland Garros and Wimbledon seemingly out of nowhere would all but hand you this award. However, because she was a top five player and nominated for the Player of the Year award, she wasn’t included here. While Emma Navarro did have a career-best year that included her first WTA title and maiden Grand Slam quarterfinal and semifinal, she began the year in the top 40. Diana Shnaider, another college tennis standout, played her first full year on the tour this year and made even more leaps and bounds.
Shnaider ended 2023 ranked No. 60 and is knocking on the top 10 following a season that saw her win her first four WTA titles, including a WTA 500 in Bad Homburg. Her season also saw a first WTA 1000 semifinal that saw a straight-sets victory over Coco Gauff as well as a fourth round appearance at a Grand Slam at the U.S. Open. She was utterly consistent from January through October, and her all-court game was solidified with titles on hard, clay and grass surfaces. She also had a strong year on the doubles court, narrowly missing out on the gold medal at the Paris Olympics with Mirra Andreeva, reaching two semifinals and the Roland Garros quarterfinals (ironically this one was with Navarro).
Newcomer of the Year:
Nominees: Lulu Sun, Erika Andreeva, Rebecca Sramkova, Zeynep Sonmez, Sonay Kartal
WTA Winner: Lulu Sun
My pick: Rebecca Sramkova
This was the most fun lineup because truthfully, all could be seen as a worthy winner. Lulu Sun’s breakthrough at Wimbledon was probably the strongest single-tournament campaign of all of the nominees, but Rebecca Sramkova’s fall was simply too great to ignore. She was on the verge of retirement earlier this year and the freedom of that saw her go from No. 129 at the end of 2023 to her current No. 46. She started to find some steam in Rome, where she reached the fourth round as a qualifier and was knocking on the top 100 as a result. She finally unlocked that achievement when she reached the final of Monastir, then won Hua Hin the following week and then qualified and made the third round of Beijing. She ignored her Asian Swing exhaustion by making the finals of a third WTA 250 at the Jiangxi Open and wrapped up her impressive year with a big win over Danielle Collins at the Billie Jean King Cup Finals.
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Comeback Player of the Year:
Nominees: Naomi Osaka, Paula Badosa, Karolina Muchova, Amanda Anisimova, Emma Raducanu
WTA Winner: Paula Badosa
My pick: Paula Badosa
I won’t lie, this lineup was a little underwhelming but I do think it’s because there’s usually one player that should outright take the award. It did seem like the WTA was grasping to find five players to create a lineup worth nominating, but you could argue reasons for each player. Paula Badosa is a rightful winner because of all of the players, she was nearly forced to retire due to her ongoing back injury that caused countless withdrawals or retirements from tournaments throughout the last one or two seasons. A mainstay in the top 20 for a few seasons, she was about to fall out of the top 100 earlier this year and started finding some footing in Rome where she defeated both Emma Navarro and Diana Shnaider before barely losing to Coco Gauff. She found her form in the summer that saw a title in Washington, semifinal in Cincinnati and her second career Grand Slam quarterfinal at the U.S. Open. Badosa’s 2024 season ended with back-to-back semifinals in Beijing and Ningbo — raising her ranking back to her current No. 12. Should she stay healthy, she’s one that could be back in the top five.
On to links!
This Week in Women’s Tennis
Maja Chwalinska and Alycia Parks captured the WTA 125 tournaments in Florianapolis, Brazil and Angers, France, respecfully. Chwalinska won the biggest title of her career with a win over qualifier Ylena In-Albon, while Parks won her firth WTA 125 knocking out Belinda Bencic in their matchup. In doubles, Monica Niculescu and Elena-Gabriela Ruse beat Bencic and Celine Naef in Angers, while Chwalinska and Laura Pigossi defeate Nicole Fossa Huergo and Valeriya Strakhova in Brazil.
Nine of Sportico’s top 15 highest paid female athletes were tennis players, including No. 1 Coco Gauff.
The USTA National Campus was awarded a 10-year contract to oversee the NCAA Tennis Championships at their facility. Don’t worry, we’ll be discussing this more next week.
Caroline Garcia is immersing herself as a student at Harvard ahead of her return to tennis early next year.
The ITF World Tennis Tour is naming their Class of 2024 with Tereza Valentova their first highlight:
ICYMI, Magda Linette and Paula Badosa made some offensive remarks during their time in China earlier this year and offered apologies for their wrongdoing.
In their first year as a structure, WTA Ventures shared the growth they’ve encountered during their inaugural year.
Torben Beltz was named the new lead for Germany’s women’s tennis program but will not be overseeing their Billie Jean King Cup team. Beltz formerly coached both Angelique Kerber and Donna Vekic, who shared she’s adding Sascha Bajin to her camp.
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We’ll be discussing Break Point and Netflix soon, but I’ve been watching Drive to Survive, and Abu Dhabi saw plenty of tennis stars take in the final F1 race of the year.
SwingVision is no longer the future of tennis AI, it’s fully here.
Mirra Andreeva’s love for Andy Murray were among the wtatennis.com’s favorite press moments of 2024.
Tweet of the Week
Well alright, alright, alright
| Mondays: Soccer |
| By: Annie Peterson, @AnnieMPeterson, AP Women’s Soccer |
| Tuesdays: Tennis |
| By: Joey Dillon, @JoeyDillon, Freelance Tennis Writer |
| Wednesdays: Basketball |
| By: Howard Megdal, @HowardMegdal, The Next |
| Thursdays: Golf |
| By: Marin Dremock, @MDremock, The IX |
| Fridays: Hockey |
| By: @TheIceGarden, The Ice Garden |
| Saturdays: Gymnastics |
| By: Lela Moore, @runlelarun, Freelance Writer |
