London | Swiatek secures top year-end WTA Ranking

The year-end Hologic WTA Tour rankings for 2022 have been published and, no surprise, Iga Swiatek finishes as the World No 1 with 11,085 ranking points, the second highest tally by a year-end No 1 in the history of the rankings, behind only Serena Williams’ effort in 2013, who gathered 13,260.

The 21-year old Pole, who ended 2021 ranked at No 9, won a tour-leading 8 singles titles, inclduing the French and US Opens, and finished with a 67-9 win-loss record of matches played this year.

With the conclusion of the 2022 WTA Finals, the week of Monday 7 November marked the official 2022 year-end rankings, and Caroline Garcia, Zheng Qinwen and Martina Trevisan were among the biggest movers this season.

Zheng and Trevisan made the greatest leaps into the Top 50 out of anyone on tour, while Garcia jumped 70 spots to finish the season as the World No 4.

Five players finished in the Top 20 in both singles and doubles: Jessica Pegula (No 3 in singles, No 6 in doubles), Coco Gauff (No 7 and No 4), Veronika Kudermetova (No 9 and No 2), Beatriz Haddad Maia (No 15 and No 13) and Jelena Ostapenko (No 18 and No 14).

Ons Jabeur, whose season was highlighted by winning the titles in Madrid and Berlin, as well as reaching 2 Grand Slam finals at Wimbledon and the US Open, finishes the year at No 2, her second consecutive Top 10 finish and up 8 from No 10 last year.

Pegula produced the highest finish by an American since 2016 when Serena Williams finished at No 2, having enjoyed success on the tour’s largest stages, with 36 of her 42 match wins coming at the WTA 1000 level and higher.

The 28-year-old, who ended 2021 at No 18, has ended a season in the Top 10 for the first time.

By capturing her 4th singles title of the year at the WTA Finals, Garcia climbed to No 4 in the year-end rankings, equaling her career-high.

For Garcia, who concluded 2021 ranked 74, this marks her second Top 10 finish, having also made it in 2017 at No 8.

Aryna Sabalenka, who was a 3-time finalist this year on 3 different surfaces, records her 3rd consecutive Top 10 finish, and second consecutive Top 5 placement.

Maria Sakkari has reached 15 semi-finals in the last two seasons, and tied with Swiatek for the most on tour, leading to her second consecutive Top 10 finish, having also ended 2021 at No 6.

The Greek reached the semi-final stage 7 times in 2022, and finished as runner-up 4 times, including twice at the WTA 1000 events at Indian Wells and Guadalajara.

Coco Gauff, who ended 2022 ranked No 10 in singles, celebrated becoming the World No 1 in doubles in August in Toronto, Canada, and held the spot for 4 weeks.

At 18, Gauff is the youngest player to finish the year in the Top 10 since 2007, when a 17-year-old Nicole Vaidisova brought her year to a close at No 10.

Since 2000, only 4 players have finished the year in the Top 10 at 18 years old or younger – Vaidisova, Maria Sharapova (2004, 2005), Kim Clijsters (2001) and Jelena Dokic (2001).

Gauff, who rose from No 22 at the end of 2021, is the youngest American to finish the year in the Top 10 since 1999 when Serena Williams finished at No 4 at 18 years, 57 days old.

Daria Kasatkina, ranked No 8, had a season highlighted by winning two titles, in San Jose and Granby, and reached her first Grand Slam semi-final at Roland Garros, recording her 2nd year-end Top 10 finish, having made No 10 in 2018 but finishing last year down at No 26.

For the first time in her career, Kudermetova finishes the year in the Top 10 at No 9, her previous career-best being No 31 last year, having reached the quarter-finals at 11 of the 20 tournaments she played.

Simona Halep ends her year at No 10 after capturing 2 titles, at Melbourne Summer Set 1 and Toronto, which paved the way for her 8th Top 10 finish.

Ash Barty ended 2021 as the World No 1, and retired from the WTA Tour in March after holding that spot for 121 weeks

The year started with Ash Barty holding the top spot until she announced her retirement on 24 March, finishing her career with 121 total weeks at No 1, the 7th most of all time.

On 4 April, Swiatek officially took over the No 1 spot and held it for the remainder of year.

The week of 7 November marked her 32nd week at No 1, and only Stefanie Graf (186 weeks), Martina Hingis (80 weeks) and Serena Williams (57 weeks) have held the World No 1 spot for more consecutive weeks after first becoming World No 1.

Five players made their Top 10 debut this year – in chronological order, Danielle Collins (31 January), Jessica Pegula (6 June), Emma Raducanu (11 July), Coco Gauff (12 September) and Veronika Kudermetova (24 October).

Raducanu became the 5th British woman to reach the Top 10, joining Virginia Wade, Sue Barker, Jo Durie and Johanna Konta.

Six players made their Top 20 debut this year – in chronological order, Collins (31 January), Leylah Fernandez (7 February), Kudermetova (11 July), Beatriz Haddad Maia (15 August), Ekaterina Alexandrova (10 October) and Liudmila Samsonova (24 October).

Haddad Maia was the first Brazilian woman to reach the Top 20 in the open era, while Fernandez was the fifth Canadian woman.

Britain's Harriet Dart made her Top 100 debut on the WTA Rankings in March

Twelve players made their Top 50 debut this year – in chronological order, Anhelina Kalinina (17 January), Camila Osorio (17 January), Jasmine Paolini (31 January), Nuria Parrizas Diaz (7 February), Haddad Maia (16 May), Mayar Sherif (16 May), Trevisan (6 June), Zheng Qinwen (13 June), Anna Bondar (18 June), Anastasia Potapova (1 August), Bernarda Pera (15 August) and Wang Xiyu (7 November).

Sherif was the first Egyptian woman to reach the Top 50, while Osorio was the fourth Colombian woman and Haddad Maia the fourth Brazilian woman.

Chennai champion Linda Fruhvirtova, 17, is the youngest player in the year-end Top 100.

Nineteen players made their Top 100 debut in 2022, ranging in age from 17 years and 141 days (Fruhvirtova) to 28 years and 63 days (Ysaline Bonaventure) – In chronological order, they were Zheng Qinwen (31 January), Diane Parry (28 February), Harmony Tan (28 February), Harriet Dart (21 March), Lucia Bronzetti (4 April), Dalma Galfi (4 April), Kamilla Rakhimova (11 April), Jule Niemeier (9 May), Wang Xiyu (13 June), Linda Noskova (1 August), Viktoriya Tomova (8 August), Elisabetta Cocciaretto (22 August), Laura Pigossi (29 Augus), Julia Grabher (12 September), Fruhvirtova (19 September), Tamara Korpatsch (26 September), Yuan Yue (17 October), Bonaventure (31 October) and Caty McNally (7 November).

Of the 19 new faces, one captured her first WTA title – Fruhvirtova (Chennai), while 7 were WTA 125 champions within the past 12 months: Zheng (Valencia), Parry (Montevideo 2021), Niemeier (Makarska), Cocciaretto (Tampico), Grabher (Bari), Korpatsch (Budapest) and McNally (Midland); and three were runners-up at tour level: Zheng (Tokyo), Pigossi (Bogota) and Bronzetti (Palermo).

There are 20 players who are 30+ years old in the year-end Top 100, with the oldest being No 30-ranked Kaia Kanepi (37 years old), while the youngest are the Czech duo of Fruhvirtova (17 years, 190 days) and Linda Noskova (17 years, 355 days).

Katerina Siniakova ended 2022 as she had in 2021 as the World Doubles No 1

Katerina Siniakova started and finished the year at the top the WTA Doubles Rankings, running her career tally to 71 weeks at No 1, including the week of 7 November, and the Czech is the first player to claim the year-end doubles No 1 spot in back-to-back years since Sania Mirza in 2015 – 2016.

As this is her third time finishing the year atop the doubles rankings (also in 2018), Siniakova joins Martina Navratilova (5 times), Liezel Huber (4), Cara Black (4), Natasha Zvereva (3) and Roberta Vinci (3) as the only woman to finish the year at No 1 three or more times.

Elise Mertens regained the No 1 doubles ranking for 10 weeks, from 6 June until 7 August, bringing her career tally to 23 weeks.

On 15 August, at 18 years and 154 days old, Gauff became the second-youngest player in history to earn the doubles No 1 ranking, which was introduced on 10 September, 1984, behind only Martina Hingis who was 17 and 251 days when she clinched the top spot in June, 1998, and she held the top spot for 4 weeks.