Ashleigh Barty is Player of the Year
The WTA gave its awards on Wednesday. AshleighBarty , Sofia Kenin and Belinda Bencic are among the winners.
by Florian Goosmann
last edit: Dec 11, 2019, 07:00 pm
Barty was voted player of the year. Barely surprising: Barty won four titles in 2019, including the Miami Open, the French Open and the WTA Finals in Shenzhen. In addition, she became the first Australian since 1976 (Evonne Goolagong), the number 1 tennis world - and decided the year as such. With 57 match wins she is also at the top in 2019.
Timea Babos / Kristina Mladenovic were chosen as the double team of the year. Greatest success: the title at the French Open and the (unbeaten) title defense at the WTA Finals. Mladenovic also climbed the top of the double ranking for the first time on 10 June - Babos was already at the top in 2018.
The title "Most Improved Player of the Year" went to Sofia Kenin: The American won her first WTA title in Hobart in 2019, followed by the Mallorca Open and the Guangzhou Open. With 38 match wins she was also the most successful on hard court. Twice she also beat the world's # 1 - Barty in Toronto and Osaka in Cincinnati. In Paris, she won against Serena Williams on her way to the second round. Your best placement: Rank 12.
Andreescu as newcomer of the year
Newcomer of the year is Bianca Andreescu, who broke the top 100 for the first time in 2019 and won three titles. And what for: Indian Wells, Toronto and then the US Open. It went up to fourth place for them.
Comeback player of the season was Belinda Bencic. The Swiss dropped to 318th place in 2017 and made it back to 7th in 2019, where she already stood in 2016.
The WTA Jerry Diamond ACES Award went to Kiki Bertens as a player who positively portrayed the sport to fans, the media and charitable organizations. In 2019, Bertens participated in more than 40 events for children and other fan events.