Another tennis year comes to an end, and time to reflect on what 2024 brought.

For me, this was the first Petra Kvitova-less year since I became a fan of hers. While Petra gave birth in July (during Wimbledon no less! More on that later…) her return is not at all certain and we may well have seen the last of her on the court (*sob*)

What it did mean is I went fully in as a Barbora Krejcikova fan and actually opened up my list of favourites a bit more. Yes Katerina Siniakova, but I cheered for Aryna Sabalenka far more than I ever thought I would. My fave’s doubles partners also drew my attention, so bizarrely cheering for abrasive German, Laura Siegemund was a bit odd. Taylor Townsend is an easier player to root for. Karolina Muchova’s excellent return from yet another injury was so enjoyable to watch. Yes, I enjoyed my WTA watching this year.

I also have taken a step back from work, so went to more tournaments this year. The UK grass court events in Nottingham, Birmingham and of course Wimbledon have been on my list for the last few summers, but having 2 days at the Rome 1000 even in May was great, and 3 days in Malaga, Spain for the Billie Jean King Cup finals was brilliant. I honestly would have gone to the WTA finals this year… if they were somewhere other than Saudi Arabia. Not really a tourist destination me as a single female was that keen to visit. Thanks WTA!

One of the big stories of this year is that for the first time in a while there were no new grand slam champions crowned. Aryna Sabalenka won the first and last majors of the year – the Australian Open and US Opens to push her major titles tally to three. Iga Swiatek won her fourth Roland Garros title and fifth major title overall. And of course, the highlight of my year, Barbora Krejcikova won her second major singles title at Wimbledon (12th major overall – three mixed, seven doubles and now two singles titles.)

The early part of the season was dominated by Iga Swiatek, cleaning up a stack of big titles. It is also easy to forget how well Elena Rybakina started the year. I will not forget the absolute masterclass she put on in the Brisbane final to spank Aryna Sabalenka 6-0, 6-3 quickly. Sabalenka joked in the trophy presentation, “Thank you for those three games. At least we made it look like a fight..”

For many Rybakina was the favourite going into the Australian Open but bad scheduling (why on earth did she play Adelaide?) and endless chances missed in an all time classic, longest tie break ever against Anna Blinkova in Melbourne ended her campaign prematurely.

In a sign of things to come, Coco Gauff played poorly but made the semifinals. Qinwen Zheng took advantage of the draw falling apart a bit to make the final. Iga Swiatek lost quite early and Barbora Krejcikova made the quarter finals – her only decent result until July.

Sabalenka was the centre of so many of the stories this year. The saddest of which was her longtime boyfriend, Konstantin Koltsov, apparently committing suicide on the eve of the Miami Open. A regular in her box, it became clear in the subsequent days that they had split up, but it definitely put her in a bit of a tail spin. Something also affecting Sabalenka was injury. She retired from a match for the very first time in her career in Berlin, and that shoulder injury kept her out of Wimbledon. However, her return on the US hardcourts showed her in dominant form – winning Cincinnati and the US Open, and also the Wuhan Open in China to get her back to number 1 in the world. A spot she ended the year as for the first time in her career.

Iga Swiatek had been going along so well until Wimbledon. An unexpected loss to Linda Noskova in Melbourne saw her rebound with titles in Doha and Indian Well, and the clay was hugely successful, with victory in the match of the year – the Madrid final over Sabalenka, a less competitive repeat in Rome and a romp past one of the highlights of the year, Jasmine Paolini in the Rolan Garros final. However, the manner of her loss to Yulia Putintseva at Wimbledon was troubling. Poots troubles everyone with her spikey personality, great retrieving and excellent drop shots, but she had just won the title on grass in Birmingham, and is always dangerous. However, Swiatek lost from a set up – and just playing badly! Her dream was an Olympic gold, so a loss to Qinwen Zheng in the semifinal was a tough – an unexpected one! Played at Roland Garros, the Paris Olympics seemed a lock for Iga. Similarly, being well beaten by Sabalenka in Cincinnati and Pegula at the US Open, Swiatek ended the year splitting with long term coach, Tomas Wiktorowski and teaming up with Wim Fisette. Her final event of the year – the BJK Cup – was almost a glorious one. Iga played really well in the fast courts of Malaga, and played doubles too for the first time in a while, but ultimately it was not quite good enough.

However, the end of the year brought one of the most shocking stories of the year, when Iga Swiatek tested positive for a banned substance. The news that she had been caught with an illegal drug, TMZ (trimetazidine ) in her system in a test on the eve of the Cincinnati tournament. She was informed a month later, after her US Open loss. Her absence from the Asian tournaments was NOT Iga having a break, but the first part of a drugs ban! Iga had apparently been having trouble sleeping after arriving in the US from Europe and took some Melatonin. Now as a Brit, I don’t know this drug, but it is apparently quite widely used as a sleep aid. Unfortunately for Iga, a drugs tester was at her door at 6am the next morning and a tiny amount of TMZ was detected. It turned out that the contamination happened at the factory in Poland, which also produced medication containing TMZ. As Iga did take this substance, she was handed a one month ban, which will be over by the middle of December.

To me this seems a clear case of Iga Swaitek being unlucky with the medicine she took. It was obviously not deliberate doping. However, along with men’s world number 1 Jannik Sinner also testing positive for a banned substance (although in his case it was an illegal steroid cream from his incompetent physio – since rightly fired!) this is not a good look for tennis. Many questions raised about how these two high profile players got their cases dealt with super quickly while others like Simona Halep, Tara Moore and Nikola Bartunkova had much longer waits. The key seems to be that the higher profile players can put a much bigger team of people into action to identify what substance caused the positive test. Sinner’s team realized within hours, Swiatek’s team put in their appeal within the 10 days. For those other, they did not know how the illegal substances got into their samples. Bartunkova had the same substance as Swiatek from a contaminated supplement and got a 6 month ban. Another Italian male tennis player for a 4 year ban for the same substance as Sinner as he could not prove a physio gave him a massage with the same steroid based cream. Double standards? Or is the drug testing regime just besmirching tennis players names and not actually catching any drugs cheats?

The question is how will Iga come out of this? A notoriously nervy and tense player, Iga is likely to get some negativity from certain quarters. However, she is also widely admired and loved by her fans. She does not come across as the type to just brush it off though, and when the chips are down, will she feel pressured? On the other hand, she had all of this hanging over her at the WTA finals and BJK cup. To be honest she wasn’t great in Riyadh, being quite fortunate to beat Krejcikova and being very poor against Coco. Yes, she wiped the floor with poor Daria Kasatkina, but not to get out of the group stage was not ideal. However, I was super impressed with the way she fought in Malaga at the BJK Cup finals. Three tough singles wins, a crucial win in doubles to take Poland to the semifinals and so close to the final on a court that wasn’t suited to her. Maybe this ordeal with have toughened her up?

In many ways, 2024 was the year of Jasmine Paolini. She is someone who has been around the tour for a while but never made a big breakthrough. In 2022 and 2023, Petra Kvitova played her in the first round of Wimbledon. While Petra won both matches, they were tough three setters. Paolini did joke that with Petra pregnant, she was hopeful she could do better at Wimbledon. She was a player who had never been beyond the second round at ANY major, yet Paolini ends the year as world number 4 and a two time slam finalists, having lost to Iga at Roland Garros and Barbora Krejcikova at Wimbledon. She also had an amazing year with Sara Errani in doubles. They took the doubles gold in Paris and then finished the year winning the BJK Cup for Italy. Paolini’s big smile and dynamic play has endeared her to many tennis watchers, who ask themselves where this Jasmine Paolini has been? At 28 years old, she is a late bloomer, but it has been one of the real joys of 2024 watching her. The Wimbledon semifinal again Donna Vekic was another contender for match of the year, and her battle with Iga Swiatek at the Billie Jean King cup probably the last great match of the year. Backing it up next year will be tough but I will be rooting for her.

Coco Gauff and Qinwen Zheng were the youngest pair of finalists at the WTA finals in Riyadh for many year. Gauff, 20, and Zheng 22 fought out a scrappy classic before Coco claimed the second biggest title of her career. 2024 was such an odd one for her. The first half of the year was Coco playing badly but managing to get wins. We then saw so many issues with her forehand and serve, the nadir of which was probably at the US Open again Emma Navarro where she hit 21 double faults – a number she repeated in the Wuhan semifinal loss to Sabalenka. However, what has been most impressive about Coco is that her defensive game – speed retrieving and mental bloody mindedness – are absolutely top notch. In that Wuhan semi final, she was wiping the floor with a slightly erratic Sabalenka in the first set before the double faults issue raised its head. She ended up finishing the year very strongly and having not been that impressed with her game in the past, I actually think she is a lock to add 1 or 2 more slams at least. She is a player that I have not really been a fan of as so many people were hyping up what seemed an unremarkable game. At 20 years old, she is starting to look like she really could be a future number 1.

Finally in this run through the year, what a year for Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova – my remaining favourites! Krejcikova’s Wimbledon run was one of the all-time highlights of my tennis watching life! I have previous blog entries here on Barbora’s Wimbledon title run, so won’t rehash it all again, but it made me very happy. I was also delighted that Krejcikova ended the year well, making the semifinals of the WTA finals – and being the only player to beat Coco Gauff that week! With that run, she ended the year in the top 10. Some real lows – Krejcikova did not win a single match at a 1000 in 2024 – but as a two-time major winner she is in elite company now.

Katerina Siniakova ended the year as doubles number 1 for the fourth time. Winning slams with Coco Gauff and Taylor Townsend, she also won doubles titles with Storm Hunter, Barbora Krejcikova and Zhang Shuai, to say nothing of the Olympic mixed doubles gold with ex/current boyfriend Tomas Machac. A shame her double year had to end with a wretched performance in Malaga in the deciding doubles where she and Marie Bouzkova looked all at sea against a super pumped Iga Swiatek and Katerzyna Kawa. The second year in a row Siniakova has lost a deciding doubles in the semifinals! She did seem pretty tired after also failing to convert in the WTA finals doubles final. Katka played a LOT of matches and ran out of gas a bit, but an amazing year for her in doubles.

So a few tennis free weeks now – which seems so odd! Roll on 2025 and fingers crossed all my favourites do well. (And Petra decides to make a comeback!)