Aryna Sabalenka has expectedly been named the WTA Player of the Year for 2024, while Emma Raducanu missed out on winning the Comeback Player of the Year award.
This season, the Belarusian successfully defended her Australian Open title and collected her first US Open trophy. Also, the 26-year-old won the WTA 1000 tournaments in Cincinnati and Wuhan, as well as returned to the world No. 1 and sealed the Year-End No. 1 for the first time in her career.
Also, it should be mentioned that Sabalenka was on a 16-match winning streak between August and October and that there was also one moment when she had won 23 of her past 24 matches.
Aryna Sabalenka© Wuhan Open/X – Fair Use
While Iga Swiatek won the most titles (7) in 2024 – including one Slam title at the French Open – and had five more wins (61) than the Belarusian (56), her biggest rival enjoyed more success on the biggest stage and ultimately finished the season as the top-ranked player.
Besides Swiatek, Sabalenka also beat out Coco Gauff, Jasmine Paolini and Zheng Qinwen for the WTA Player of the Year.
Raducanu doesn’t get named the WTA Comeback Player of the Year
After undergoing three surgeries in 2023 May, the 2021 US Open champion returned to action at the start of 2024 and enjoyed a solid comeback year.
By reaching the Nottingham semifinal – making the Wimbledon round-of-16 – and rising for nearly 250 spots on the rankings list, the 22-year-old did enough to be nominated for the best comeback on the Tour in 2024. But in the end, Raducanu didn’t get the award.
Instead, Paula Badosa – who missed the entire second part of 2023 due to a back injury – was named the WTA Comeback Player of the Year. This year, the Spaniard won the WTA 500 tournament in Washington and also went from being ranked at No. 140 in May to finish the year as the 12th-ranked player.
Also, the Spanish tennis star was a semifinalist at the WTA 1000 tournaments in Cincinnati and Beijing and also reached the US Open quarterfinal.
On paper, Badosa had a more successful comeback season than Raducanu so it is probably fair that the former world No. 2 won the award in that category.
Tennis World USA