Four different players won a Grand Slam in 2023, with Iga Sviatek winning the Champions Tour and ending the season at No. 1 in the WTA rankings.

Aryna Sabalenko and Iga SvyatekPhoto: Artur Widak/NurPhoto/Shutterstock Editorial/Profimedia

Aryna Sabalenko (Australian Open winner), Iga Sviatek (Roland Garros), Marketa Vondrousova (Wimbledon) and Coco Gauff (US Open) aren’t the only players who have shone this season, and Eurosport has put together the top highlights of 2023.

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Player of the season in singles: Iga Svyatek

For the second season in a row, Iga Svyatek took first place in the WTA ranking at the end of the year. In 2023, the Pole achieved 68 wins and 11 losses and won six titles: Doha, Stuttgart, Roland Garros, Warsaw, Beijing and the Tournament of Champions.

Iga was overtaken by Aryna Sabalenko in the WTA Race rankings for most of the season, but ended the year with an 11-match winning streak, won the Champions Tour for the first time and returned to the top of the world rankings.

Sviatek won a total of 54 sets 6-0 or 6-1 in the 2023 season, followed by Jessica Pegula (26).

Doubles team of the season: Laura Siegemund and Vira Zvonaryova

WTA veterans Laura Siegemund (35) and Vera Zvonarova (39) needed to win the Nanchang tournament to qualify for the Tournament of Champions. They succeeded, and then triumphed in the competition in Cancun (they also won in Washington and Ningbo this year).

Also, Laura and Vera were US Open finalists for the second time (in 2020 they won the competition, but now they were beaten by the pair of Gabriela Dabrowski/Erin Rutliff).

Their achievements were all the more impressive given that Zvonareva had an 11-month layoff (March 2022 – February 2023) following an injury.

Match of the season: Beatriz Haddad Maia vs Sara Sorribes Tormo

Beatriz Haddad Maia and Sara Sorribes Tormo provided the longest match of the season. They played for three hours and 51 minutes in the Round of 16 at Roland Garros, and the Brazilian won (3) 6-7, 6-3, 7-5.

It was the third-longest women’s match in Roland Garros history, and Beatriz became the first Brazilian to reach the quarterfinals of a Grand Slam since 1968.

Here you can view the match summary.

There are also two Romanians in the ranking of the 10 longest WTA matches from 2023: Ana Bohdan (4th place – lost to Lesya Tsurenko in the third round of Wimbledon – 3 hours 40 minutes) and Sorana Kirstea (10th place – beat Beatrice Haddad Maia in the first round in Dubai – 3 hours 29 minutes).

Rivalry of the season: Aryna Sabalenko vs. Olena Rybakina

Aryna Sabalenko and Olena Rybakina met four times in 2023, and they shared the victories. The first match was also the most important and ended with the triumph of the player from Belarus: 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 in the Australian Open final.

Elena took her first win over Aryana in the finals in Indian Wells, 7-6(11), 6-4, and they had the dialogue of the season at the awards ceremony: Rybakina: “It was my first win in the final against you” / Sabalenka: “I will make it the last.”

Then Rybakina beat Sabalenka in the quarterfinals in Beijing (7-5, 6-2), and Arina took revenge in the Champions Tournament groups (6-2, 3-6, 6-3). According to the results of 2023, in face-to-face matches with Rybakina, Arina leads with a score of 5-2.

The surprise of the season: the return of Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki

At the beginning of 2020, Caroline Wozniacki announced that she was ending her career in tennis. After two births, the Dane returned to the world circuit this year.

Wozniacki won the first match in Montreal (6-2, 6-2 against Kimberly Birrell), and then reached the round of 16 of the US Open (she was defeated in three sets by Coco Gauff, who went on to win the competition).

Former WTA leader and Australian Open champion (2018) is already preparing for the 2024 seasonand on Wednesday she lost to Maria Sakkari in an exhibition tournament in Ciudad de Mexico 6-3, 6-4.

Comeback of the season: Elina Svitolina

Elina Svitolina spent 12 months away from tennis to give birth to her daughter Skye in October 2022. The Ukrainian woman spent her maternity leave raising funds for her native country, which is at war with Russia.

Svitolina returned to the track in April 2023. Only a month later, Elina won her 17th career title in Strasbourg, and then reached the quarterfinals at Roland Garros. In two months, the Ukrainian won 13 out of 16 matches, defeated Iga Svyatek at Wimbledon (she reached the semi-finals of the Grand Slam for the third time in her career) and climbed 481 steps: from 508 to 27.

Debutante of the year: Mirra Andreeva

Of all the players in the year-end WTA top 100, Mirra Andreeva has made the biggest jump in the rankings in 2023 after a sensational season. In total, the 16-year-old Russian climbed 359 positions, from 405th to 46th.

Mirra played in the junior final of the Australian Open and started the year on a 16-match winning streak (during which she won two ITF W60 titles. In her second WTA main draw appearance, Andreeva reached the round of 16). in Madrid (defeated by Aryna Sabalenko).

Then the Russian qualified for the third round of Roland Garros and the 1/8 finals of Wimbledon. She has always won her first match in tournaments in 2023 and has a total of four wins against top-20 players (Beatrice Haddad Maia, Magda Lynette and twice with Barbora Krejcikova). Mirra Andreeva finished the season with 36 wins and 9 losses.