THE past 12 months have been a rapid rise for Belinda Bencic, who went from a developing talent into a genuine top performer across the WTA Tour. She won just the two titles, but collected more than half of her career prize money, and upped her output to catapult herself into the top 10.

Rank: #8
Wins: 50
Losses: 22
Titles: 2
Prize Money: $4,113,075

Ranked 37th coming into 2019, Bencic was able to win at both Dubai and Moscow, reached the Mallorca Open, and made a semi-final at the US Open. It was her win in Dubai at the start of the season that really turned heads, having a horror draw that she manoeuvred with four consecutive wins over top 10 players. Her talent was undeniable and exciting, and it was clear by her WTA Finals series run – where she knocked off Petra Kvitova and took sets against eventual finalists Ash Barty and Elina Svitolina.

Inconsistency plagued Bencic at times in 2019, which is the main area to focus on heading into 2020. Either side of her semi-final run at the US Open, she went down to Victoria Azarenka (Western & Southern Open) and Veronika Kudermetova (Wuhan Open) in the first rounds. Her worst result came a couple of weeks later where she went down to 166th ranked German, Anna-Lena Friedsam at Linz. Despite these downsides, it is worth remembering Bencic’s best is still ahead of her with the 22-year-old at the start of her career.