WORLD number one Ash Barty has won her second WTA Player of the Year award in three years, after being voted in as the Tour’s top player for the 2021 season. International media representatives voted on the various WTA Player Awards, which recognise the standout performers from the season.
WTA Player of the Year: Ash Barty
Despite only playing nine tournaments for the season, Barty won a Tour-high five titles in 2021, including her second Grand Slam, at Wimbledon. Barty also successfully defended her Miami Open title, and won in Melbourne (Yarra Valley Classic), Stuttgart (Porsche Tennis Grand Prix) and Cincinnati (Western & Southern Open). Remarkably, Barty retained her status as world number one for a third consecutive year despite far fewer tournaments than her rivals.
WTA Doubles Team of the Year: Barbora Krejcikova / Katerina Siniakova
The Czech duo also received their second WTA Tour Doubles Team of the Year award, having earned the honour back in 2018. In 2021, Krejcikova and Siniakova won at Roland Garros – their third Grand Slam – as well as three other titles. They secured the Gippsland Trophy and Madrid Open, but their biggest win outside the Grand Slam was at the WTA Finals, where they were awarded the Martina Navratilova Doubles Trophy for their success.
WTA Most Improved Player of the Year: Barbora Krejcikova
In an awards night that only features five awards, it is pretty handy to scoop up two of them, but that is exactly what Krejcikova did. Along with her Doubles Team of the Year award, Krejcikova took home the Most Improved Player of the Year award, rising from outside the Top 60 at year’s start, to a remarkable third in the world this year. She won at Roland Garros – claiming the Grand Slam title in both singles and doubles – as well as at Strasburg and Prague.
WTA Newcomer of the Year: Emma Raducanu
There was little surprise the winner of the Newcomer of the Year award, with the British teenager bursting onto the scene in 2021. The most recent Grand Slam winner at Flushing Meadows, Raducanu stole hearts with her run at the major, after a smaller cameo effort earlier this year at Wimbledon. She did not drop a set throughout her 10 matches at the US Open, becoming the first qualifier to win the title, rising from 343rd at the start of the year to a remarkable career-high of 19.
WTA Comeback Player of the Year: Carla Suarez Navarro
A no-doubt popular winner of the award, the retiring Suarez Navarro decided to go on another year after initially planning to retire in 2020. When COVID-19 meant the 2020 WTA Tour was largely interrupted, the Spaniard went around again. Though she might not have the accolades that the other award winners on this list have, Suarez Navarro was a winner before she even took to the caught, overcoming cancer (Hodgkin’s Lymphoma) to play some impressive and gritty tennis, finishing her career on her own terms, representing Spain at the Billie Jean King Cup Finals.
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