December 14, 2016
Spelling challenges, emoji challenges, cracker challenges, selfie challenges and, of course, the WTA Frame Challenge – which video was the best of the year? Click here to vote!
Elina Svitolina
2016 Quick Hits
Week 1 Ranking: No.20
Year-End Ranking: No.14 (Career-High No.14, March 7)
Season Highlights: Title at Kuala Lumpur, finals at New Haven & Zhuhai
Best Major Result: QF (French Open)
14 Days until the 2017 #WTA season! pic.twitter.com/DIIg2qWhUX
— WTA (@WTA) 18 de diciembre de 2016
2017 Outlook
Some players adhere to the policy of “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it,” but Elina Svitolina isn’t one of those people.
After a career-best season – which saw her rise to her highest ranking of No.14, upset two different WTA World No.1s, pocket a title at Kuala Lumpur and reach the finals at New Haven and Zhuhai – the always-improving Svitolina announced a new coaching team with the goal of getting herself past the final hurdles and cementing her spot at the game’s upper echelons.
A busy off-season schedule in 2015 stunted Svitolina’s progress earlier this year, but she learned her lesson and heads into 2017 with a clear objective:
“Of course, the main goal is to be Top 10,” Svitolina told WTA Insider at the Huajin Securities WTA Elite Trophy Zhuhai. “I’ll try to have a normal off-season this time, work really hard physically, and mentally. It’s all about the small details, so I’ll be trying to work on those and make little changes.”
Looking ahead to 2017, Ukraine’s No.1 player will start out the year rested and in prime position to make big gains. With just a handful of points to defend in the first two months of the year, Svitolina looks ever closer to a big leap into the WTA’s highest rankings.
An interview with Agnieszka Radwanska before her first round match at the Mutua Madrid Open.
An interview with Simona Halep before her first round match at the Mutua Madrid Open.
Chan Yung-Jan and Chan Hao-Ching took to the culture heart of Singapore during the WTA Finals, even attempting to create traditional dress worn throughout Southeast Asia.
Simona Halep takes on Misaki Doi in the first round of the Mutua Madrid Open.
An interview with Irina-Camelia Begu after her win in the second round of the Mutua Madrid Open.
Victoria Azarenka takes on Alizé Cornet in the second round of the Mutua Madrid Open.
Simona Halep
2016 Quick Hits
Week 1 Ranking: No.2
Year-End Ranking: No.4
Season Highlights: Madrid, Bucharest, Montréal Champion, Singapore RR
Best Major Result: QF (Wimbledon, US Open)
2017 Outlook
An injury-addled off-season left Halep unprepared for the season to come, and tough losses at the Australian Open and Middle East left many to question what was to come next from the former World No.2
Halep began to slowly silence the doubters by March, reaching back-to-back quarterfinals in Indian Wells and Miami, and truly soared once she hit her beloved clay, winning her second Premier Mandatory title at the Mutua Madrid Open. The Romanian star credited the success at one of her favorite tournaments – run by fellow Romanian Ion Tiriac – with a new approach alongisde coach Darren Cahill.
“I had many days training with Darren,” she explained to WTA Insider. “I wanted that. I asked him when he made the schedule in January that I wanted this week to prepare with him here in Madrid. So I knew what I want to do.
“It’s much better to come a few days earlier. You feel the courts, you feel the atmosphere of the tournament, and you feel like you are into it already when the tournament starts.”
Halep continued to feel the courts this summer, winning two more titles at home in Bucharest and Montréal, where she also paired Monica Niculescu to reach the doubles final.
“It was very different because I’m not used to playing doubles,” she said in her Rogers Cup Champions Corner. “I got a little bit tired in the end. But it also helped me to play some doubles matches because I practiced the return, the serve. That helped me a lot in singles; I had tough opponents there. It’s been a great week.”
The former French Open finalist played one of her most impressive matches in Flushing, pushing then-World No.1 Serena Williams to the brink at the US Open.
“It was tough,” she said of the loss. “It is tough. I’m a little bit sad, but I have just to take the positives, because I have a lot going ahead.”
For the youngest woman in the Top 4, there is certainly still more ahead, and plenty more to come in 2017.
Simona Halep, Carla Suárez Navarro, Garbiñe Muguruza, Victoria Azarenka and the rest of Madrid’s top seeds took to the practice courts ahead of the Mutua Madrid Open.