The Biggest Storylines That Will Surround the Top WTA Stars in 2015
Excluding the Fed Cup in November, the most iconic names in women’s tennis are finished hitting serves and pummelling returns for another year.
For the second year in a row, it’s the great Serena Williams who ends the year on top of the rankings. She triumphed at the WTA Finals in Singapore, defeating Simona Halep 6-3 6-0 in the final, making that three end of year championships in a row for the American.
Incredibly though, that demolition of Halep in the championship match came just a few days after Serena herself had been handed a pasting (winning just two games) by the Romanian. The world No. 1 has the unrivalled ability to flick a switch and play at her highest level when it truly matters.
She hasn’t been at her best in 2014 but she’s still ahead of the chasing pack.
Can she maintain her grasp on the women’s game in 2015 or will others get their chance? Let’s consider the burning questions facing the current top eight on the WTA Tour.
Will Wozniacki Win Her First Slam in 2015?
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Danish superstar Caroline Wozniacki has had the most promising latter half to the 2014 season of any WTA player.
At Wimbledon, her ranking was at No. 16. Since then, though, she’s halved that, with a stream of deep runs into tournaments and a title in Istanbul.
She could maybe have won a couple more titles if her good friend Serena Williams hadn’t been on the other side of the court. Wozniacki lost to the world No. 1 in the quarter finals in Montreal, the semis in Cincinnati (both in three sets), then in the U.S. Open final and most recently at the WTA Finals in Singapore.
The Dane was incredibly impressive through round-robin play at the WTA Finals. Once again, just like at the U.S. Open, she fought past Maria Sharapova in an epic battle lasting three hours and 14 minutes. She subsequently defeated Agnieszka Radwanska and Petra Kvitova with relative ease in her next two group matches, to finish the opening stage of the tournament with a perfect 3-0 record.
But after the pair of them met Mariah Carey together the night before, Wozniacki and Serena did battle in the semi-finals in Singapore.
The No. 8 seed flew out of the blocks, storming the opening set 6-2. If we know anything about the younger Williams sister though, she’s a fighter. After a stunning racket smash, she found her serve and her game, and levelled the match.
The decider was one of the sets of the year, filled with drama, tension and passion, delighting the crowd at the Singapore Indoor Stadium. Both players held onto their serve all the way to 4-4, but then the Dane found some lethal returns just at the right time to give her the opportunity to serve for the match.
As we may have expected, though, Serena went up another gear and broke straight back. The world No. 1 had chances at 5-6 to win but it went to a thrilling final set tie break. Wozniacki led 4-1, only for Williams to win five straight points and hold two match points at 6-4. Those were saved by the Dane. Serena converted her next chance, though, when Wozniacki sent a shot wide.
It was an enthralling match that showed Wozniacki is right there with the best in the game in Serena. Everything about her game seems to have improved. Her serve has got more on it and wins more free points. She was happily trading forehands with the U.S. Open champion, something that would have been unheard of just a few months ago. Her backhand, movement and defensive skills remain huge strengths too.
Serena Williams is the only reason that Caroline may not be able to win a maiden Grand Slam title in 2015. At her best, we know that Serena will beat any other woman. She hasn’t been at her best in 2014, leaving some hope for the other challengers, including Wozniacki. But even a part of her highest level has been good enough to defeat her close friend four times this season. Wozniacki is certainly getting closer though.
The Dane herself has shown at the WTA Finals that she’s extremely capable of beating her fellow top-eight players. Her level of play has improved drastically in the last few months and she has an excellent chance of winning a Grand Slam in 2015, particularly on her favourite hard courts of Melbourne and New York. It’d be very surprising if she doesn’t go deep at the Australian Open in January.
Can Eugenie Bouchard Push on and Learn from 2014’s Big-Match Experiences?
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There have been a lot of firsts for 20-year-old Canadian hero Eugenie Bouchard in 2014.
She won her first WTA title (in Nuremberg). She was the first Canadian to reach an Australian Open semi-final and then, at Wimbledon, she became the first player representing Canada to reach a major final. She’ll finish the year placed at No. 7 but she reached No. 5 recently for the first time.
It’s been a year of great promise for the confident and determined Montreal resident. She’s been consistent in the Grand Slams, reaching the semis or better at all except the U.S. Open.
She wasn’t able to win those really big matches, though, right at the end of the majors. It’s not that she seemed overawed by the occasions as she’s as confident as anyone on the circuit, but she couldn’t find her best tennis in those contests.
In the Wimbledon final, for example, she was absolutely thrashed by Petra Kvitova and didn’t really pose the Czech any sort of problems.
These experiences will certainly help Bouchard no end as she advances into her third full year on the WTA Tour. Should she reach another Grand Slam final in 2015, she’ll have had that unique feeling of “competing” (sort of) in one before.
The Canadian is right where she wants to be: around the top of the women’s game. Yet, she won’t settle for that. She wants to be the world’s best and claim numerous important titles. 2015 could just be the year that we have a new female name on a Grand Slam trophy.
Is Radwanska’s Style of Play Ever Going to Allow Her to Have Genuine Success?
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For those who hold distaste for the brutal, relentless, power game of the majority of the top WTA stars, Agnieszka Radwanska is a breath of fresh air.
Her tennis is grounded on variety. With her soft hands, she can slice, lob and drop-shot the ball anywhere she pleases. She moves and defends so well, with her infamous “crouching down” shots where her knees almost touch the court when she plays them. Her ability to make so many balls into court can be an absolute nightmare to play against. It forces her opponent to go bigger with their shots.
However, with the top players, she’s almost relying on them to commit a string of unforced errors. The match is effectively on their racket.
Sometimes this strategy will work wonders. For example, recently against Maria Sharapova at Singapore’s WTA Finals, she was 1-5 down in the second set. Radwanska knuckled down her play and got lots of balls back. Sharapova got tense and nervous and started making a lot of errors, allowing the Pole to get back into the set and ultimately win it.
Yet, more often than not, the sheer power and precision of a Serena Williams and a Maria Sharapova will be more than enough to break down Radwanska’s game. If they find their spots with groundstrokes, they’re going to win.
The Pole may win a relatively big tournament here or there, like she did at the Rogers Cup in Montreal this year, but it's unlikely she’ll have a period of consistent success because the power game will be too strong for her. Her serve is a major weakness and players feel that they have a chance to break it in every return game.
2014 has been a pretty disappointing season for Radwanska, only making the second week of a Slam once (reaching the semis in Australia). She’ll end the season ranked at No. 6, four places down from her career high of No. 2.
Her performance at the WTA Finals will give her some reason for optimism going into 2015. She surprisingly thrashed an out-of-sorts Petra Kvitova in straight sets and squeaked into the semi-finals, before being walloped herself by Simona Halep.
The Pole must be doing something right as she’s still clearly among the WTA’s top eight players. If she brings a consistent level into every match in 2015, she may catch out someone on a bad day and get herself back into a Grand Slam final.
While her style of play may not be a winning formula, you have to admire her for being unique on the WTA Tour.
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Is Ana Ivanovic Here to Stay in the Top 5?
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Like Caroline Wozniacki, Serbian Ana Ivanovic is another former world No. 1 who has spent the last few years out in the wastelands of outside the top 10.
And also similar to Wozniacki, she’s enjoyed a year of strong resurgence.
She made a stunning start to 2014, beating Venus Williams in the Auckland final. Then she shocked the other Williams sister in the Australian Open fourth round, out-hitting Serena in “rally after rally”, as the Guardian said at the time.
Her progress in Melbourne was stalled at the quarter-final stage by Eugenie Bouchard. The other three Grand Slams weren’t quite so kind to the Serb in 2014.
But on the WTA Tour, she also won titles in the Mexican city of Monterrey, then Birmingham and Tokyo. Two further finals were reached in Stuttgart and Cincinnati by Ivanovic.
At the WTA Finals in Singapore, she had a golden chance to make the semi-finals and knock out Serena Williams in the process.
After somehow coming back to win the opening set against Simona Halep in a tie break, in their final round-robin match, she needed to close it out in two sets. However, she only managed to get it done in three, so Serena advanced and Ana was eliminated.
It’s been a terrific year for the former French Open champion. She has propelled herself back into the elite of the game, ending the year at No. 5 in the rankings.
She’s been one of the surprise packages of the year and will surely now be looking to be more consistent in all four Grand Slams in 2015 and try to get deep runs going at each one.
She told WTA.com: "I felt like I was playing well the whole year this year, but at the big events, the Grand Slams, I didn't perform as well as I wanted to. I think I'm going to schedule my season a little bit differently next year. Hopefully play less events, but play better at the big ones and Grand Slams".
Ivanovic is a big-time player, with lots of weapons and power that can live with anyone on the WTA Tour. She’s shown that by pushing Serena very hard in their five meetings this year, of which three went to three sets.
She won 58 matches in 2014, which was the most of anyone on the Tour.
Kvitova Has to Strive for More Consistency in 2015
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Winning your second Wimbledon title isn’t a bad return for a season, but Petra Kvitova could have done so much more in 2014 considering how big her game is.
She had a woeful start to the season, losing in the first round at the Australian Open. Then, at Roland Garros, the Czech was defeated in the third round by Svetlana Kuznetsova in an absorbing contest that went to 9-7 in the third set.
On the grass of Wimbledon, though, Kvitova’s game comes into its own. Her powerful lefty serve and forehand get rewarded there, and she hammered Eugenie Bouchard in the final to win her second Slam title.
Another disappointing showing followed at the U.S. Open, an event at which Kvitova admits she doesn’t feel overly comfortable. She told The Independent’s Paul Newman:
“I think the U.S. Open just doesn’t suit my personality. I’m more of a calm person. There, it’s noisy all day, cars are everywhere and it takes so long to get to the site. I know that those things shouldn’t matter when you’re playing, but I just find they drain your energy”.
But then Kvitova went on a tear in the Asian swing after that. She won in Wuhan and then finished runner-up to Maria Sharapova in Beijing. Signs were good going into the WTA Finals in Singapore.
No one expected her to lose 6-2 6-3 in her opening match to Radwanska, a player who seemingly Kvitova would enjoy playing against (owning their head-to-head record 5-1 before that match). She then herself thrashed Sharapova, before losing in two sets to Caroline Wozniacki.
Those three matches show right there what the problem with Petra Kvitova is. One match she’s absolutely flawless, hitting winner after winner, the next one she sprays balls all over the court.
If she can find a way to play more solidly and consistently from one week to the next, she could win so many more titles, including other Grand Slams.
This season, she lost in her opening match at five different tournaments (via WTA.com), which is startling for someone who is currently ranked at No. 4 in the world.
In 2015, perhaps the two-time Wimbledon champion will avoid more first-round upsets and challenge Serena for the No. 1 ranking.
Despite WTA Final Hammering, Halep Has Got Serena Worried
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The graceful Simona Halep has had a wonderful, promising year on the WTA Tour. She started off ranked just outside the top 10 but has soared to the lofty heights of world No. 3, as the offseason begins.
Her game is as smooth as they come, with serene movement, perfect timing and precision. The Romanian is relentless but in an exquisite way.
After one particular contest at the WTA Finals in Singapore, everyone around the world now knows her name. Halep absolutely humiliated a stunned Serena Williams in round-robin play, by a scoreline of 6-0 6-2.
Serena was absolutely nowhere near her formidable best, making numerous errors and, as she put it, serving worse than when she was “in the 10 and under division in juniors.” It was the American’s heaviest defeat since 1998.
Just when thoughts of “it’s easy this beating Serena lark” may have been circling Halep’s mind, Serena well and truly stalled the Romanian in her tracks.
Williams only got two games in their previous meeting, but in the WTA championship final it was Halep who only managed to win three. Serena responded in the only way she knows how, by hammering any opposition into submission with a magnificent performance.
Halep has that first performance against Serena to use to give her great confidence going into 2015. She dealt one of the greatest of all time a colossal defeat.
Williams admitted that she’d underestimated her opponent in their first meeting in Singapore: “Knowing that she [Halep] has the ability and the capability to play so well, I knew that I had to step up my game. I knew that I had to play a lot better, so I obviously was expecting a much better player than I was in the earlier rounds.”
The world No. 1 and now five-time WTA Finals champion also stated, concerning Halep: “She’s making me a better player”.
Already a huge name in her home country of Romania, Halep will continue to take the world by storm in 2015. Serena knows how good she is. It’d be incredibly surprising if she doesn’t reach another major final next year.
After two, opposing one-sided meetings with Serena in Singapore, maybe their next meeting in a title decider will be a dogfight.
Adding to Grand Slam Tally Is Top of Maria Sharapova’s Agenda
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After 2014, Russian superstar Maria Sharapova now has five Grand Slam titles. Clay has seemingly become her favourite surface, as she picked up her second Roland Garros title, defeating Simona Halep in an absorbing three-set final.
She certainly led the way through the rest of the clay-court section of the season too, winning big events in Stuttgart and Madrid. Her results were more mixed throughout the rest of the year, though, losing in the fourth round of the other three majors.
At the moment, at No. 2 in the world, you’d say that she’s effectively heading up the pack chasing Serena Williams. Yet, she’s regularly losing to players ranked below her in the top 10.
She had a chance to take over the No. 1 spot with a great showing at the WTA Finals, but she played poorly in her opening two matches and then badly choked in the second set against Agnieszka Radwanska, losing a 5-1 advantage and three match points, to lose it on a tie break and send her out of the competition.
In fairness, it would have been somewhat misleading had the Russian secured the top ranking, because Sharapova still hasn’t beaten Serena since 2004.
She’s perfectly capable of winning more Slams in 2015, but she’ll need to find a way to solve those players coming through who are trying to win their first one. Caroline Wozniacki, for example, has outlasted Maria on two occasions now in three-set battles.
Lots of work is needed in the offseason, particularly on honing the serve, as double faults are still creeping in.
One dimension that could be added is approaching the net quicker. With her brutal power, Sharapova can force her opponents back off the court and out wide beyond the tramlines with one groundstroke. Yet, she doesn’t come forward enough behind those shots.
It could definitely help her against the great movers of the women’s tour, like Wozniacki, to finish off some points more quickly.
However, Maria, herself, is satisfied with her season:
“A lot of question marks at the beginning of the season, and I'm happy to be sitting here and saying that I've added another Grand Slam to my resume, that I've won great titles, I had a great clay court season, and a lot of good wins, a lot of tough matches that I pulled through that I could have easily lost.”
Will Serena Continue to Be the WTA Queen and Get Closer to Steffi Graf in 2015?
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Paul Newman of The Independent brilliantly summed up the year of the great Serena Williams:
“There have been some ups and downs along the way but Serena Williams ended the 2014 season as she had begun it—with her standing as the best player in the modern women’s game unchallenged”.
Unquestionably, 2013 was much better: A 78-4 record and 11 titles, including two majors. That is absolutely stunning.
People were talking about her doing the Calendar Slam in 2014, but she didn’t even get out of the first week at Melbourne Park, Roland Garros and Wimbledon.
She’s been nowhere near as dominant; nowhere near her absolute best at times. But, still, she finishes the year with seven titles, including the U.S. Open and WTA Finals (for the third time in a row). She’s still on top of the world right now, with no one else really anywhere near.
As USA Today’s Chris Chase comments, “give any other WTA player the year Serena had and it’d be the height of their career”.
Williams actually seems more vulnerable to losing to outsiders these days, rather than fellow top-10 players, such as Garbine Muguruza at the French Open and Alize Cornet in London. She’s won each of her seven finals this year, all in straight sets.
The biggest question for Serena is: Can she keep it going in 2015?
She’s certainly going to have to fight off some younger, emerging players like Eugenie Bouchard and Simona Halep. Caroline Wozniacki is also rebounding strongly and pushed Williams so close in the semi final in Singapore.
However, the WTA Finals has strengthened her position at the top of the game, as she still beat all those three, despite not being at her best.
She’s reached 18 Grand Slams now, tying Chrissie Evert and Martina Navratilova, which is a huge weight off her shoulders.
She’s just four back of German legend Steffi Graf now and that seems a very reasonable target before she retires. It’s going to be fascinating to see her try and chase down that total. One or two majors per year over the next few seasons and she’d be there.
But, in reality, she has won everything she’s ever needed to and more; anything else now is just a bonus.
2015 is another year where we’ll see how Serena Williams can add even further to her spectacular legacy.
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