The 2019 Grand Slam schedule has officially come to an end, and perhaps the most intriguing topic is the classic barbershop conversation; who amongst this group of women is the best? I’m here to rank the young talent of the WTA (25 and under) with an unbiased look into who’s for real, and who’s not.
Yes, you could use the internet and search the rankings provided by the Women’s Tennis Association, but they are – in many ways – misleading. Why? For starters, the players who achieved success on the biggest stages this year were largely inconsistent. To give an example, Ashleigh Barty won her first Grand Slam title in Roland Garros and followed with a dominant performance at Birmingham, where she didn’t drop a single set. After her historic stretch of success in May, Barty lost form. The summer months were by no means a disaster, but considering her prior achievements, her results suggested she wasn’t firing on all cylinders. Barty lost her number one ranking on August 6th after a first round loss to Sofia Kenin in Toronto. Ash Barty‘s rollercoaster production this year is just one example; and make no mistake, Ashleigh Barty is an assassin who will pick apart the best players if they’re not in form. All of these top tier players are incredible athletes who have served up superstar main courses, with a little bit of human error as a side dish.
With the exception of seasoned stars like the Williams & Pliskova sisters, and anyone else aged 26 and older, this is my list of the most dangerous women’s tennis players in the world.
1. Bianca Andreescu (19, Canada): The best player alive is still a teenager. That is the scariest part about Bianca. She’s a compact combo of speed and power with an arsenal that is going to get more lethal with time as she becomes more precise with redirection from the baseline. We could be witnessing the beginning stages of the best women’s player of all time. Here’s a scenario to put this into perspective. She’s had two chances to play Serena Williams in a final this year. She lifted the trophy both times, and once was in New York at the US Open. Nine other players have faced Serena more than once in the same year in tournament finals; how many of them have beat her multiple times the way Andreescu did? Zero.
2. Naomi Osaka (21, Japan): The closest thing we’ve ever seen to Serena Williams is Osaka. She has some of the most vicious ground strokes in the game, and her court awareness and point construction are unreal. Already a major champion, she admitted that the onslaught of attention and fame that came with being the world’s best player distracted her for the first half of 2019. That seems to be behind her now, as she’s contended in every tournament in the second half of the hard court season, including a win in China that included two three set classics with Bianca Andreescu and Ashleigh Barty respectively. She’s the real deal.
3. Ashleigh Barty (23, Australia): Her achievements in 2019 have lifted her to elite status. Already a Grand Slam Champion, Barty is of smaller stature, but has a full compliment of power in her ground game to make sure the bigger hitters don’t have an advantage. The more opportunities I’ve had to watch her play, the more she’s impressed me with her ability to spare an early set and come back to win. Only Su-Wei Hsieh has more three set victories since the beginning of May. She’s simply a grinder and I don’t think the title at Roland Garros was a fluke. She will be a multiple major champion.
4. Anett Kontaveit (23, Estonia): Kontaveit has had health issues, but when she’s right, she is as good as anyone in the world. She was truly in perfect form at the US Open where she took a brutal blow after withdrawing in the third round due to illness. I believe she would have beaten Belinda Bencic, and went on to take out a laboring Naomi Osaka – just as Bencic did – to advance to her maiden Final Four. Watch out for Kontaveit to break through in 2020 on the hard courts and win her first Grand Slam title.
5. Dayana Yastremska (18, Ukraine): The second young Ukrainian in my top ten has unlimited potential. Yastremska definitely strives on the hard courts and grass where she can play with pace, and when she’s in form her ground strokes are enough to hit anyone off the court. She’s shown some inconsistencies with a few bad losses, but that can be expected from a player who should battle through the first real adversity of her young career.
6. Aryna Sabalenka (21, Belarus): Sabalenka has power for days. She’s inconsistent at times but seemingly every time out she’s fine tuning those inconsistencies more and more. Her loss in the final to Sai Zheng at Silicon Valley was a reminder that even the lighter hitters in the WTA can still bring it with plenty of pace and usually have the speed advantage over Aryna, but she’s been flawless since then, and she’s in a great spot to win at Wuhan in a match against Petra Kvitova.
7. Elise Mertens (23, Belgium): Mertens isn’t too flashy, but she’s fun to watch. She’s a patient baseline player who uses redirection with her ground strokes to hit winners all day. Mertens routinely finds herself playing deep into tournaments and if that’s going to be her M.O. in Grand Slams over the next few years, she just might walk away with a trophy one of these days.
8. Madison Keys (24, United States): Keys is one of the hardest hitters in the world; amongst men and women. During her title run at Cincinnati, where she beat Svetlana Kuznetsova in straight sets, it was reported by The Tennis Channel that Keys average forehand speed was 83 MPH. The only player with a harder forehand at Cincinnati was Novak Djokovic. She has a few areas for improvement, especially implementing a serve and volley, which would simply be too much to handle for even the craftiest baseline defenders.
9. Karolina Muchova (23, Czechia): She’s the second coming of Martina Navratilova. No, I’m not serious, but she’s damn good. And while I don’t think she’s quite on Martina’s level, I still think Muchova is a top ten player who will win multiple slams. I had the pleasure of watching her highly anticipated Final matchup against rising Polish contender Magda Linette, and she completely dismantled her. Twelve might be a little bit low, but until she proves to be efficient on the larger stages she can’t be placed in front of the players on this list.
10. Sofia Kenin (20, United States): Kenin is the most technical player on this list. She refuses to let the unforced errors pile up and she punishes players of lesser skill with regularity. She’s currently content with playing the baseline game, and she should be contending in majors for years to come.
11. Elina Svitolina (25, Ukraine): It’s hard to believe that Svitolina has never won a Grand Slam. She plays with power, and has 13 WTA titles to her name. It’s only a matter of time before Elina breaks through in Melbourne or Flushing at one of the hard court majors. I predict a win in January for Svitolina at the Australian Open.
12. Belinda Bencic (22, Switzerland): Once expected to be the perennial clay court contender in the WTA, Bencic has had a few setbacks with injuries. It got so bad that she apparently tossed around the idea of hanging up the sneaks, but she’s back and fully healthy for the hard court swing to start 2020, and she looks solid. Grand Slam expectations might be a bit ambitious at this point, but a few deep runs can be expected.
13. Ekaterina Alexandrova (24, Russia): What Alexandrova lacks in the trophy case, she’s made up for in the hard court season of 2019. An absolutely dominant force who is consistently finding herself favored in matches against really tough competition. And to boot, she’s winning these matches. A solid first serve and a smooth mover along the baseline allows her to keep points alive until her opponents simply make the unforced errors that she refuses to commit.
14. Maria Sakkari (24, Greece): Talk about swagger. The 24 year old from Athens has one of the most complete packages on the list. She doesn’t necessarily do anything that jumps off of the screen when you watch her, but she has grit and can rarely be counted out of a match. She won a match against Elina Svitolina that she was down 1-6 2-5 while the Ukrainian was serving for the match. She saved match point three times in that game, and came all the way back to win 1-6 7-6 6-3. She’s racked up wins against Petra Kvitova, Ekaterina Alexandrova, Kiki Bertens, and Veronika Kudermetova in the past six months. Watch out for Sakkari to break through on the clay and grass in 2020. A win at the French Open is a bold prediction, but not out of the question.
15. Iga Swiatek (18, Poland): The young Pole is a flat out baller. It might be a bit ambitious to put her ahead of names like Alexandrova, Gauff, Peterson, Townsend, and Anisimova to name a few; but I think Iga Swiatek is going to be the best player in the world and we’re going to be watching a player with Serena Williams caliber excellence every year for the next decade. Another ambitious claim, but I watched a different kind of athlete I’m going to leave it at that.
Update 10/16/2019
Moving In: Ekaterina Alexandrova
Moving Out: Donna Vekic
Next Up: Donna Vekic (23, Croatia); Yulia Putintseva (24, Kazakhstan); Amanda Anisimova (18, USA); Jen Brady (24, USA); Rebecca Peterson (24, Sweden); Taylor Townsend (22, USA); Marketa Vondrousova (20, Czechia); Veronika Kudermetova (22, Russia); Elena Rybakina (20, Kazakhstan); Anna Blinkova (21, Russia); Katerina Siniakova (23, Czechia); Fiona Ferro (22, France); Bernarda Perra (24, USA); Viktoria Kuzmova (21, Slovakia)
Honorable Mention: Cori Gauff (15, USA): Ok, so surely you’ve heard of the legend known as Cori “Coco” Gauff. The 15 year old high school Sophomore beat a player by the name of Venus Williams in her maiden Wimbledon appearance. Then she went on to beat two more top 100 players, most notably Polona Hercog in three grueling sets. She ran into eventual champion Simona Halep, but you get the idea. This kid is special. In my opinion, we’re going to witness a power struggle in the next ten years between Amanda Anisimova, Bianca Andreescu, Iga Swiatek, and Coco Gauff; and without any of these amazing talents being light years better than any of the rest, I think it will be difficult for them to make a record breaking impact in respects to accolades the way that Federer, Nadal, Djokovic, and Serena have, but it will be greatness all the same.
Thanks for reading. Disagree with any takes?Leave a comment below.
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