WTA Player Awards: Review
The WTA Player Award winners were announced earlier this week - I've reviewed the winner and nominees from each category.
This week’s article was originally going to be on the Davis Cup but every single thing worth covering got covered on last week’s episode of the podcast.
Instead, whilst our favourite tennis players enjoy some much needed respite, it’s time to start reflecting on the season.
The WTA Awards were awarded last Tuesday handing me the perfect opportunity to squabble about the winners and nominees.
WTA Player of the Year: Ash Barty
WTA Newcomer of the Year: Emma Raducanu
Most Improved Player of the Year: Barbora Krejcikova
WTA Comeback Player of the Year: Carla Suarez Navarro
WTA Doubles Team of the Year: Barbora Krejcikova/Katerina Siniakova
Let’s get stuck in!
2021 WTA Player of the Year
Ash Barty, the world #1 takes the WTA Player of the Year award.
Predictable?
Yes! Here’s why I’d have been outraged at anyone else taking the award.
The Titles
Excluding doubles titles, Barty leads the field with five.
She started her year with the Yarra Valley Classic and the Miami Open, a 500 and a 1000 respectively, and she followed this up with a title on the red clay of Stuttgart. Her highlight of the season was winning her first Wimbledon trophy (her second Slam overall) and she won another Masters in emphatic fashion in Cincinnati.
Anett Kontaveit, Barbora Krejcikova and Garbine Muguruza were her closest rivals in terms of titles won. Keep in mind Barty’s titles alone amassed a total of 5000 ranking points…
Kontaveit won four titles: two 500s and two 250s = 1500 points total.
Krejcikova won three (singles) titles: two 250s and the French Open = 1500 points total.
Muguruza won three titles: a 500, a 250 and the WTA Finals = 2125 points total.
If we’re talking quantity, Kontaveit was closest.
Quality? Muguruza was closest.
There’s no two ways about it though - if we only look at titles, Barty was the best player this year.
Ranking Points
You don’t have to win big title after big title to be the best player in the world though, right? When Karolina Pliskova became #1 back in 2017, she had three 250s and one Masters title supporting her ranking - it’s more important to consistently be in the latter stages of tournaments than winning them outright.
This argument falls flat, however, as Barty won this battle too.
Look at the players with the top-five ranking points accrued throughout the year (a pretty strong indication of a player’s consistency throughout the year)…
Barty = 6411 points over 13 tournaments.
Sabalenka = 5268 points over 18 tournaments.
Krejcikova = 4893 points over 17 tournaments.
Pliskova = 4661 over 18 tournaments.
Garbine Muguruza = 4570 over 19 tournaments.
Overall? At 6411, Barty wins.
Per tournament? Barty won an average of 493 points per tournament to Sabalenka’s second-placed 292. Barty wins.
Best Against The Rest
“It’s not what you win, it’s who you beat to get there!”
Finally, Barty was undoubtedly the best player against the best players in the world.
Here are the players with the top-five best records against the top-20 this year.
If anything, this is more damning for Emma Raducanu than anything else. Playing two top-20 players throughout the year ain’t enough to be crowned player of the year!
At *second place, Barty takes the plaudits. An outstanding 14-1 record is almost impossible to argue with.
BARTY WINS *drops the mic*
2021 WTA Newcomer of the Year
Who knows why Emma was included in the best player of the year award over players like Sakkari/Pliskova/Kontaveit/Badosa? I think the nominators got a little excited when shortlisting.
Her win here is absolutely justified, however. There isn’t much to say really - Emma Raducanu rocked up to the US Open ranked #150 in the world, having won no more than a W25 tournament in her career, won ten matches in a row and walked away with the US Open title.
There are few more impressive newcomer stories throughout the history of tennis.
The Interesting Debate
The more exciting question is who should be runner-up?
Raducanu’s US Open title aside for its exceptionality, I believe this category should be gauged on consistency - which player has shown she could be a mainstay on the tour for years to come?
Well, you gotta be able to beat top-50 players.
Clara Tauson: 6-3 = 67%.
Camila Osorio Serrano: 4-4 = 50%.
Luidmila Samsonova: 9-12 = 43%.
Ann Li: 3-6 = 33%
Mayar Sherif 0-2 = 0%.
And you gotta be able to reach the latter stages of tournaments. Apart from Sherif, all our players won at least a title and made multiple semis, so I’ll use ranking points accrued throughout the year to determine this one.
Luidmila Samsonova: 1456 points.
Ann Li: 1067 points.
Camila Osorio Serrano: 1040 points.
Clara Tauson: 1028 points.
Mayar Sherif: 457 points.
It’s pretty close but Samsonova showed more than the other players that she has what it takes to stick around. She suffered some tough losses but actually sports a winning record against top-20 players this year (5-3) - Osorio Serrano is the only other player to beat a top-20 player with one win.
From her outstanding grass season to a couple of semifinals at the end of the year to a win for Russia in the Billie Jean King Cup, Samsonova’s powerful game has assured me we’re going to see a lot more of her over the coming years.
Most Improved Player of the Year
Though Barbora Krejcikova also happens to be a successful doubles player, since this category is made up of singles players, let’s look at Krejcikova’s singles performance in isolation for this category (the other women don’t play doubles so doubles performance is a bit of an unfair criterion for most improved player, wouldn’t you agree)?
With that in mind, this one was probably the hardest one to pick.
Highest Ranking
Comparing each players’ previous highest ranking to their current ranking is as good a place as any to start to determine the MOST improvement…
Barbora Krejcikova #65 (Nov-2020) to #5.
Maria Sakkari: #20 (Feb-2020) to #6.
Anett Kontaveit: #21 (Oct-2018) to #7.
Paula Badosa: #69 (Oct-2020) to #8.
Ons Jabeur: #31 (Aug-2020) to #10.
Jessica Pegula: #59 (Sep-2020) to #18.
Leylah Fernandez: #88 (Oct-2020) to #24.
Kontaveit and Sakkari were already established players within the top-30, making incremental improvements to their fitness and patterns of play to find themselves within the top-10. Also, Kontaveit’s vein of form has been so short-lived, it remains to be seen whether it will fizzle away - I’d count them out for these reasons.
Jabeur’s climb is more impressive as she had only just started to beat tour-level players consistently the season prior, plus her ascent to the top-10 was unprecedented for any Arab player. With deep runs aplenty throughout the season, she comes in a well-deserved third.
Pegula (Montreal, Australian Open) and Fernandez (Monterrey, US Open) made successful runs at individual tournaments but, whilst their improvements are worth applauding, they haven’t matched the consistency of our final two candidates.
Top-100 to Top-10
There’s obviously other arguments to be made but I would say going from outside the top-50 to being inside the top-10 is more of a jump than any of the others - the two players that achieved that this are Krejcikova and Badosa.
From there, it boils down to weight of achievement (which was probably the only determining factor for the WTA) and Krejcikova’s French Open win surely trumps Badosa’s Indian Wells win.
I’d have probably changed my mind if Krejcikova had lost this point…
WTA Comeback Player of the Year
This is probably the most subjective category within the WTA Awards. I’ll give you each of the nominees’ stories and you can make your own informed decision!
Sania Mirza
A former six-time Grand Slam champion, Sania Mirza’s absence from the women’s doubles game had been felt since 2018.
Mirza had announced she was pregnant in April 2018 - she had started an attempted comeback in 2020 but was slowed down by a calf injury. She returned to the tour in March this year.
After crashing out in the first round of the Olympics, Mirza picked up some momentum, reaching the final in Chicago alongside Christina McHale and winning the title in Ostrava alongside world #8, Shuai Zhang.
Elena Vesnina
From doubles world #1 in the July of 2018, Elena Vesnina announced she was pregnant only three months later.
Though Vesnina only returned from maternity leave at the start of this year, she has made some incredible runs in doubles tournaments.
Wimbledon finalist partnering Veronika Kudermetova.
French Open mixed finalist partnering Aslan Karatsev.
Mixed doubles silver medalist partnering Karatsev.
No ranking points for mixed doubles unfortunately but Vesnina ends the year at a respectable #45 in the world having played no professional tennis for two years prior to 2021.
Vesnina and Mirzah’s stories are very similar but the calibre of Vesnina’s achievements edges her comeback in my opinion.
Ana Konjuh
Ana Konjuh was destined for a massive career.
In 2013, she won the junior Australian Open and US Open, becoming the world #1 junior. In 2016, at only 18, she upset Agniezska Radwanska at the US Open to reach the quarterfinals on her debut and, the following, year she peaked at #20 in the world after beating Dominika Cibulkova to reach the Wimbledon fourth round.
In Toronto a couple of tournaments later, Konjuh woke up unable to extend her arm. She played two more tournaments before calling time on her season, opting for surgery on her elbow to remedy the issue.
A failed attempted comeback in 2018 was proceeded by another in 2019 as the pain returned again and again.
At the tail end of 2020, having undergone four total surgeries and hours of extensive physio, the results started coming without the pain attached. Now, here she is sporting 42 wins this year alone, deservedly earning her place back on the tour having won 24 of her 30 qualifying matches throughout the year.
She ends the year back in the top-100 (#66) - a deep run at a tournament in 2022 is surely on the cards for the Croat.
Carla Suarez Navarro
The winner of the award and former world #6, Carla Suarez Navarro’s story is heart-wrenching.
She planned to leave the tour in 2020 but was unfortunately diagnosed with Hodgkin’s Lymphoma in September that year.
She officially won the battle with cancer in April this year and came back to the court to finish her career on her own terms. She took Barty (#1) and Pliskova (#7) to a third-set at Wimbledon and the Olympics, respectively, defeated Ons Jabeur in singles and beat the world #1, Elise Mertens, alongside Muguruza in the Olympic doubles.
To play tennis at the highest level having been through chemotherapy… Need I say more?
In my opinion, Suarez Navarro wholeheartedly deserves the award followed closely by Ana Konjuh.
WTA Doubles Team of the Year
We’ll do the same breakdown for the dubs as we used for the singles for bants…
The Titles
Siniakova/Krejcikova are joint-first for titles won with Shibahara/Ayoama with five titles. The other pairs all won two titles - here’s how the top-two and the Slam winners compare.
Siniakova/Krejcikova won five titles: French Open, Madrid Masters, WTA Finals, a 500 and the Olympics (zero points) = 4970 points total.
Shibahara/Ayoama won five titles: Miami Masters, 3 x 500s and a 250 = 2660 points total.
Mertens/Hsieh won two titles: Indian Wells Masters and Wimbledon = 3000 points total.
Stosur/Zhang won two titles: US Open and Cincinnati Masters = 3000 points total.
Even without the Olympics boosting their score, the Czechs took the most prestigious titles this year.
Ranking Points
Siniakova/Krejcikova = 7950 points over 13 tournaments.
Shibahara/Aoyama = 5695 over 21 tournaments.
Hsieh/Mertens = 4847 over 10 tournaments.
Melichar/Schuurs = 4065 over 19 tournaments.
Stosur/Zhang = 3411 over 5 tournaments.
Points accumulated this year? The Czechs win.
Success rate per tournament though? The doubles pairing of Stosur/Zhang take it at 682 points per tournament. Krejcikova/Siniakova weren’t far behind at 611 points whilst Hsieh/Mertens were third at a respectable 485 points.
They didn’t play enough to be crowned partnership of the year but keep an eye on Stosur/Zhang next year…
Win-Loss Record
Doubles is a game unto itself - anybody can lose to anybody so, rather than limiting our scope to top-20 wins, we’ll take a look at the overall W/L records of our doubles pairings.
Once again, miles ahead of the pack, Siniakova/Krejcikova win in this department.
There’s no doubt they deserved to win but the second-best pairing in the world is a bit harder to call. I’d give it to Hsieh/Mertens given Mertens won the Australian Open without Hsieh - though it’s no reflection on their partnership, it cements the fact they are the second-toughest pairing to beat in the world.
This was a long article, thanks for sticking around.
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Nice piece, Jack. Did Emma not win the US without dropping a set as well? Makes it even more impressive. Hope the UK media gives her some space next year but doubt they will.
"Who knows why Emma was included in the best player of the year award..."
She wasn't. She was in Player of the Year. And that award could just as easily go to the standout personality as to the player with the best results. The average person who doesn't follow tennis has no idea who Ash Barty is. Nearly everyone with access to the internet knows who Raducanu is. Raducanu represents the word "tennis player" to the world, in a way matched only by Serena Williams in recent years. And it didn't take her 20 grand slams to make that impact.
If you measure the impression Raducanu made on the public psyche, compared to the others shortlisted for the award, you will see that she blitzed them. Utimately, the WTA chose the winner on other criteria. But it's not unreasonable to nominate her, then let the judges decide.