The 2023 Australian Open gets underway on January 16 and top tennis players will be sweating it out to win the first major of the year – here are the top female contenders.
The 2022 season of women’s tennis was dominated by Iga Swiatek. However, there were exceptional performances from a few other players as well. Let’s take a look at some of the players who would start among the favorites to win the 2023 Australian Open.
5. Aryna Sabalenka
The Belarusian star has the experience of winning the Australian Open, albeit at the doubles event. In singles, her best results came at the 2021 and 2022 editions when she made it to the fourth round. She entered last year’s tournament as the second seed and lost to Kaia Kanepi in three sets.
Sabalenka did not win any title this season. She finished with 33 wins and 22 losses. The 24-year-old is currently ranked No. 5 in the world. Her season ended with a loss in the finals against Caroline Garcia in straight sets 6-7 (4-7), 4-6.
Sabalenka’s experience will hold her in good stead at the Australian Open and also her aggressive style of play can work wonders on the fast courts of Melbourne Park.
4. Ons Jabeur
The Tunisian No. 1 had a great season in 2022. She reached two finals in Grand Slams this year. The current world No. 2 played 64 singles matches this year. Jabeur went on to win 47 matches and lost 17 during the year with an impressive win percentage of 73.44.
Jabeur bagged two titles this season. The first of them came at the Madrid Open when she defeated Jessica Pegula in the final. With this win, Jabeur became the first African player to win a WTA 1000 title. Jabeur’s second title of the year came at the German Open. In the final, Belinda Bencic retired during the second set owing to an injury.
Jabeur made her debut at the WTA Finals this year. She lost two of her three group-stage matches against Aryna Sabalenka and Maria Sakkari respectively. Her only win in the season-ending competition came against Jessica Pegula.
3. Jessica Pegula
The American star has been on the WTA circuit for quite some time now. She has reached the quarterfinals in the last couple of editions of the Australian Open. Pegula lost to top seed and eventual champion, Ashleigh Barty, in this year’s Australian Open quarterfinal.
2022 turned out to be a great year for Pegula. She won her first WTA 1000 title this year at the Guadalajara Open after edging fourth seed Maria Sakkari in the final in straight sets. This is the biggest triumph in her singles career till now.
Pegula also made the cut to play in both the singles and doubles events at the WTA Finals. However, she couldn’t progress past the group stages in both events. In the singles as well as doubles events, she returned empty-handed losing all the matches. The 28-year-old won 42 singles matches this season and lost just 21 with a win percentage of 66.67.
2. Caroline Garcia
The 29-year-old played some scintillating tennis, especially in the latter half of the season. She looked unstoppable at times with her aggressive shot-making as opponents got outpowered by her on many occasions. Garcia will remember 2022 as the year of her resurgence.
The experienced Frenchwoman was only behind Iga Swiatek in terms of the total number of titles won this season. She won the Bad Homburg Open in June after defeating 2019 US Open champion Bianca Andreescu in the final. Garcia won three more titles – the Poland Open, the Western & Southern Open, and the WTA Finals.
In the Australian Open thus far, Garcia’s best result came in the 2018 edition of the tournament when she was ousted in the fourth round by Madison Keys. This year, she had a rather disappointing campaign in Australia as she lost to America’s Hailey Baptiste in the first round. However, on the hard courts during the US Open, Garcia fared much better and reached the semis. If she can continue her rich vein of form then she could be a strong contender at the Australian Open.
1. Iga Swiatek
The Polish superstar has already achieved a lot in a young career thus far. The 21-year-old has shown tremendous maturity and will to learn and this has helped her reach the lofty heights of excellence.
Prior to 2022, Swiatek had won just 3 titles. However, as the year is about to end, the talented youngster has added 8 more titles to her trophy collection. This includes a couple of Grand Slams as well. The world No. 1 lost just 9 singles matches this year. She won 67 matches with a staggering win percentage of 88.16.
Her best result at the Australian Open came this year when she reached the semifinals. Seeded 7th in the tournament, she lost to 27th seed Danielle Collins in straight sets in the final. Swiatek’s stature increased as the year went on and after her triumph in Flushing Meadows, the Australian Open could once again be a memorable campaign for the Warsaw-born player.
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