Tennis Prose




Dec/22

12

Top Six WTA Players To Watch In 2023

Like the ATP World Tour, there is an abundance of intriguing WTA players ready for stardom – or irrelevance.

Eugenie Bouchard: The Canadian former Wimbledon finalist and top 5 player has been irrelevant on the pro circuit for years despite her strong work ethic and burning desire to bounce back to being a factor again. Now ranked 329 and 28 years old, Bouchard achieved a mediocre 6-9 record in 2022. 2023 is going to be “make or break” for the former star.

Iga Swiatek was the dominant force in the WTA at age 21, winning two Grand Slams (Roland Garros and US Open) and orchestrating a historic 37 match win streak. The Polish juggernaut accumulated 11,085 WTA points, more than double what no. 2 Jabeur totaled 5,055. Now represented by marketing giant, Iga may be ready to take the next step to icon status among Serena, Chrissie, Steffi, Monica, Little Mo, Suzanne Lenglen, Margaret Court, etc…

Coco Gauff reached the top in doubles and is now stationed at no. 7 in singles, not bad for an 18-year-old but expectations for the Floridian powerhouse are considerably higher. Will Coco continue her ascent and evolve and refine her game? Does she need a top notch experienced coach to take that next big step?

Elena Rybakina won Wimbledon this year but the monumental triumph did not propel her to stardom. The 23 year old still virtually unknown and anonymous and ranked in the middle of the pack at 21. Will Rybakina bounce back with a vengeance for being slighted by the tennis establishment – or has the rejection broke her will to be a top 5 elite player and made her accept being another also-ran in the middle of the pack?

Amanda Anisimova is 21 year old now and ranked 23 but the former prodigy still has not been a factor in Grand Slams. The American has won two WTA titles and almost $4m in prize money and with her going-through-the-motions/ just-happy-to-be-here aura, it’s possible her best days are behind her. The 2019 Roland Garros QF and 2022 Wimbledon semi indicate she has the arsenal to win more than one Grand Slam – but does she have the burning desire or obsession?

Qinwen Zheng of China is in position to explode in 2023. The 20 year old is ranked 27 and on the rise. She has everything needed to become a big champion, power, poise, work ethic, desire, but maybe her serve needs to be improved. Now training in Barcelona with former ATP player Pere Riba, Zheng should crack the top 10 next year, or better.

Other notable players who can make major moves next year are Leylah Fernandez (ranked 39), Naomi Osaka (41), Bibi Andreescu (45), Marta Kostyul (71), Alycia Parks (75), 17 year old Linda Fruhvirtova (78), 18 year old Linda Noskova (101), Jess Pegula (3), Caro Garcia (4), Belinda Bencic (12 and coached by Dmitry Tursunov).

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12 comments

  • catherine · December 16, 2022 at 10:54 am

    Latest from the grapevine: Raducanu will be working with German coach Sebastian Sachs, who previously helped Julia Georges and Belinda Bencic.

    (Naturally this information was accompanied by sneering remarks about Emma and her coaching changes. These people always think they know best.)

    It’s been a couple of years but I still miss Julia. That serve and forehand, and seemed a very nice person. Could have made a W’don final if she hadn’t had to face Kerber in the semis.

  • Scoop Malinowski · December 16, 2022 at 12:57 pm

    Well Catherine you can root for Goerges by supporting her boyfriend, Wesley Koolhof, who is top 4 in doubles. Raducanu is a money machine and every coach who gets called by her is going to want job security and a fair piece of the action. It’s going to be hard for her to find a coach who really cares about helping her win and not about filling his pockets. Tursunov asking for the long term 2.5 year deal for his plan revealed a lot.

  • catherine · December 16, 2022 at 2:39 pm

    Emma loses 5-7 6-3 10-8 to Jabeur in Abu Dhabi. Not bad, as her first match in 2 months.

    But I think it’s unlikely she’ll win anything big this year. A a few good runs and staying injury free would be the best result, mentally and physically.

  • Scoop Malinowski · December 16, 2022 at 2:44 pm

    Catherine, how could you write off a Grand Slam champion like Emma, who has won a Grand Slam while coco ons etc have not. Emma wants it bad, she will get one next year. She is highly motivated to make all her critics and doubters eat crow.

  • catherine · December 16, 2022 at 3:57 pm

    Scoop- I’m not writing Emma off. I’d just like her career path to be smooth and not interrupted by cracks which could swallow her up.

    In some ways she’s two or three years behind other girls her age when it comes to her background in the pro game. As she said herself, the attention was overwhelming. Not winning a GS in 2023 would be absolutely no disgrace.

  • Scoop Malinowski · December 16, 2022 at 5:24 pm

    Catherine, if she can win a Grand Slam as an unknown teenager qualifier she can handle anything in tennis. Just needs to assemble the right team, that’s the hard part to find people who really care and who can really help her improve. I think she should reach out and consult Monica Seles and Hingis and learn about their instant successes and how they coped.

  • catherine · December 18, 2022 at 2:41 am

    One takeaway from Abu Dhabi: Emma doesn’t look like a schoolgirl anymore. She looks like a player.

  • Scoop Malinowski · December 18, 2022 at 10:57 am

    Catherine, I didn’t see the match or any highlights, I don’t understand what you mean. How does she look any different now from a few months ago?

  • catherine · December 18, 2022 at 3:38 pm

    Some highlights were briefly on Youtube. Emma is 20 now, a year or so away from the kid who had just left school, turned up at the USO and won it. She looks sturdier, more athletic, more confident about herself and where she is.

    You can’t tell much from an exho but she gave Ons good opposition. She played as though she belonged there.

  • Scoop Malinowski · December 18, 2022 at 5:51 pm

    She does belong there, she’s won a Grand Slam, Ons has not. Ons has the better ranking but Emma won a Grand Slam. Or have they taken that away from her yet under grounds that it was a fluke?

  • catherine · December 19, 2022 at 2:57 am

    Emma and Leylah reaching the USO final was a fluke in many ways – doubt it will happen again on the women’s side.

    Trouble was, hardly anyone knew much about Raducanu, even in the UK, so when the fans expected her to perform like a No 1 in every match she played they didn’t understand how unrealistic this was.

    It’s been a hard year but I thought she seemed cheerful and confident in Abu Dhabi. Ready for whatever’s ahead. She was moving well – as Tursunov said, Emma’s got good coordination. That’s a big advantage.

    In a ‘real’ match Ons would have won I’m sure but she certainly didn’t give this one away.

  • Scoop Malinowski · December 19, 2022 at 7:36 am

    Catherine, it almost sounds like you’re suggesting Raducanu should give back the US Open 2021 title to Serena. There was nothing fluke or lucky about what Raducanu and Fernandez did at US Open, they both played the best tennis that fortnight and earned their ways to the final. Since then, the rest of the wta players treated both like Cinderella and were extra motivated to stop them from going to the big party again at their expenses.

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