Grand Slam tournaments: anything is possible for women
The success of Sofia Kenin at the Australian Open 2020 has once again confirmed - if you like surprises in tennis, women are much better off.
by Jens Huiber
last edit: Feb 02, 2020, 07:38 pm
When a new decade begins, new statistics are sometimes presented early on, which the (tennis) world has not called for. But which can bring a certain amount of knowledge. As if there were: Much more is possible with women than with men. And: It wasn't always like that.
First, knowledge one: If you can believe the hobby chronicler, then at least 15 men have reached a major final since 2010 and including the Australian Open 2020. With a bit of good will and time, we may even get them together in constructive group work, in addition to the obvious candidates, we don't want to forget about Tomas Berdych, Kei Nishikori or Kevin Anderson.
Serena Williams the exception to the rule
On the side of women? A whopping 34 different players have fought in a final match in the 41 Grand Slam tournaments since the beginning of 2010. But who was Ashleigh Barty's final opponent in Roland Garros last year? Right: Marketa Vondrousova. Sara Errani (2012 against Maria Sharapova ) and Lucie Safarova (2015 against Serena Williams) were also almost successful at the French Open. Petra Kvitova won in Wimbledon for the second and to date in 2014, in the final against, well, Eugenie Bouchard (it's been so long).
Almost as surprising, however, is the development in professional women's tennis as such: Recently, there has apparently no longer been a need for previous Grand Slam merits to win the title at one of the four largest tournaments.
Between 1980 and 2016 there was only one player who could win a major without first reaching the quarter-finals: Serena Williams, who triumphed at the 1999 US Open without much warning. Between 2017 there were already four: Sofia Kenin (Australian Open 2020), Bianca Andreescu (US Open 2019), Naomi Osaka (US Open 2019) and Jelena Ostapenko (French Open 2017).