The tennis year stepped straight into delightful chaos when Madison Keys — not two-time defending champion and World No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka — won the Australian Open. It was the first career Grand Slam title for Keys, who was on the cusp of her 30th birthday.
“My team believed in me when I didn’t believe in myself,” Keys noted, “and helped me every step of the way.”
Likewise, three-time defending Roland Garros champion Iga Swiatek lost in the Paris semifinals to Sabalenka. Then, after falling in a first-set tiebreak, Coco Gauff came back to stun Sabalenka and collect her second career major, at the age of 21.
“I didn’t think honestly that I could win,” Gauff said.
A month after the disappointment of losing at Roland Garros, Swiatek won the Wimbledon title on grass, historically her worst surface.
“Pretty surreal,” said Swiatek, the eighth consecutive first-time women’s champion at Wimbledon. “I’m just proud of myself because … who would have expected that?”
And now, as the season’s fourth and final Grand Slam approaches, can there be any doubt it won’t deliver another bouquet of surprises?
In the past decade, four players — Flavia Pennetta (2015), Sloane Stephens (2017), Bianca Andreescu (2019) and Emma Raducanu (2021) — won their first and only major at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.
Here’s a quick look back at some of the sensational twists and turns we’ve seen already this year:
Teenagers take over
Andreeva goes big back-to-back
Everyone knows that teenagers can be terrors.
Still, no one was prepared for the havoc a 17-year-old wreaked back in late winter. Mirra Andreeva won six matches at the WTA 1000 in Dubai, against such luminaries as No. 2 Swiatek and No. 7 Elena Rybakina before beating Clara Tauson in the final.
It happened again at Indian Wells, as Andreeva won insta-rematches with Swiatek and Rybakina — and then beat World No. 1 Sabalenka in the final, coming back from a set down. That 12-0 run launched her into the Top 10 for what looks like the foreseeable future.
“I would again like to thank myself for fighting until the end,” Andreeva said, quoting Snoop Dogg, “and for always believing in me and for never quitting.”
Next Generation
Tereza Valentova and Iva Jovic, both born in 2007, are the youngest players to break into the Top 100 this year. They both have WTA 125 titles (Jovic in Ilkley, Valentova in Grado and Porto) and Valentova was recently a Prague semifinalist too, losing to eventual champion Marie Bouzkova.
Julieta Pareja became the first player born in 2009 to reach a WTA Tour semifinal in Bogota — she’s the junior No. 1 now and has a wild card at the US Open.
Comebacks and retro sparks
Retro moments
A trio of distinguished players — Belinda Bencic, Marketa Vondrousova and Anastasija Sevastova — all upset Top 10 players while ranked outside the Top 100.
Bencic, returning from pregnancy leave, shocked Rybakina in the semifinals of Abu Dhabi and went on to win the title back in February. Her opponent in the quarterfinals was Vondrousova, who rebounded in June to defeat Sabalenka and Keys on the way to the title in Berlin.
At the age of 35, Sevastova beat Jessica Pegula on the way to the Round of 16 in Montreal.
At the other end of the spectrum …
Veterans Tatjana Maria, Laura Siegemund and Venus Williams all got hot this summer.
Maria, 37 and a mother of two, was a surprise winner at Queen’s Club, beating Rybakina, Keys and Amanda Anisimova. Siegemund, also 37, reached the quarterfinals at Wimbledon, matching her best showing in a Grand Slam singles draw. Forty-five-year-old Venus Williams won her first match in nearly two years in Washington, D.C.
Breakthrough seasons
Two is (duh!) twice as nice
On grass courts in England, McCartney Kessler and Maya Joint both won their second Hologic WTA Tour singles titles of the year.
Kessler, a 26-year-old American, did it in Nottingham, beating three Top 50 players, and bookending her successful run in Hobart at the beginning of the year. Joint, a 19-year-old who represents Australia, triumphed in Eastbourne, her second title in as many months going back to Rabat, Morocco.
Newcomer of the Year?
The voting for this category in the WTA’s year-end awards could go in any number of directions.
Playing at home in Canada, 18-year-old Victoria Mboko won the Omnium Banque Nationale title earlier this month. It was a magnificent run that featured wins over four different former Grand Slam champions, including Naomi Osaka in the three-set final.
The Philippines’ Alexandra Eala, then 19, raced through to the semifinals at the Miami Open, herself beating three former major champions, including Swiatek and Keys. Lois Boisson, ranked No. 361, tore through to the semifinals at Roland Garros with signature wins over Pegula and Andreeva. And then the 22-year-old backed it up by winning the title in Hamburg and is now inside the Top 50.
