Ten years later: What are the top 10 women doing in 2011?
A strong youth career - not always a guarantee of a successful transition to "adults". Who of the best players in 2011 is still great today?
by Florian Goosmann
last edit: Dec 30, 2021, 10:31 am
# 10: Indy de Vroome
The Dutchwoman is still fighting for her big breakthrough: She has won seven ITF titles and is still waiting for a successful qualification at one of the Grand Slam tournaments. De Vroome celebrated her best WTA ranking as number 177 in 2014; she is currently ranked 249.
# 9: Anett Kontaveit
She definitely made it! The Estonian is currently in 7th place in the WTA world rankings and thus higher than ever. Kontaveit had played in the top for a few years, with her finish this year with tournament victories in Cleveland, Ostrava, Moscow and Cluj-Napoca, she stormed the top 10 for the first time and qualified for the WTA Finals for the first time. One possible factor: her new coach, ex-pro Dmitry Tursunov, who previously trained Aryna Sabalenka. As a youth, Kontaveit won the legendary Orange Bowl in 2011, and she celebrated her most successful junior time in 2012 with the semi-finals at the French Open and Wimbledon and the finals at the US Open.
# 8: Montserrat Gonzalez
Gonzalez is now a "tennis retiree" and announced her resignation in August this year. She did not make the big breakthrough: 150th place in 2016 was the highest of feelings for the lady from Paraguay, she collected 11 titles on the ITF tour. At the US Open 2016 she was in round 2.
# 7: Danka Kovinic
Kovinic has been playing among the world's elite for years, and one reads her name again and again - although only very few have consciously seen her play often. The woman from Montenegro vacillates again and again between ITF and WTA Tour participation: she celebrated twelve tournament victories on the ITF Circuit, and at WTA level she was in three finals. She has beaten two top ten players (Roberta Vinci, Belinda Bencic) in the course of her career. In 2016, Kovinic was ranked higher than ever with 46th place, currently she is number 96 in the WTA ranking.
# 6: Grace Min
The American triumphed at the US Open in 2011 in the Juniors event, on the tour, her first match success with a major is still pending, despite six individual appearances in the main field. In 2015, Min was 97th place in the WTA ranking, and she is currently in 171st place. Min is on the ITF tour accordingly, where she has won twelve titles so far.
# 5: Caroline Garcia
Andy Murray had only meant well, but his tweet from 2011, when Garcia did extremely well against Maria Sharapova at the French Open, put a lot of pressure on. "The girl who is currently playing against Sharapova is going to be number 1. Caroline Garcia, what a player!"
In 2011 Garcia was in the semi-finals of the Australian Open, French Open and Wimbledon as well as in the finals of the US Open in the women's junior division. On the tour she experienced her greatest successes initially in doubles, in 2016 she won here in Roland Garros. In 2017 Garcia put on a brilliant season finish in the singles and stormed into the top 10 as well as to the WTA Finals in Singapore. In 2018 it was even ranked 4th in the world! Most recently, however, the 28-year-old fought for her form and is only listed in 74th place. Will she make the jump to the top again? In terms of play, Garcia can at least have it all.
# 4: Eugenie Bouchard
"Genie" has already seen everything: a victory in Wimbledon among the juniors in 2012, the big breakthrough with two major semi-finals (Melbourne, Paris) and one final (Wimbledon!) In 2014 and the jump to 5th place in the WTA ranking . But also: various form crises, the first in 2015 - with the "famous" fall in the locker room at the US Open when things were going better again. Bouchard fell out for a long time, but sued the US association quite successfully. After possibly too many detours in the boulevard and beach coverage , the Canadian wants to know again and focus on tennis again . She was last injured on the shoulder and had an operation in June, but is aiming for a comeback.
# 3: To-Sophie Mestach
The Belgian won the 2011 Australian Open junior competition and made it to first place in the Juniors ranking. However, Mestach did not make the leap to the top of the WTA Tour: In 2015, she cracked the Top 100 (98th place), and ended her career in early 2019.
# 2: Ashleigh Barty
Jo - what should we say? Barty is currently the ultimate on tour. In 2011 she won Wimbledon and raised extremely high hopes, also because of her slightly different style of play (with Slice!). The arrival in Australia after the triumph, however, was too much for Barty, the success and the associated pressure led her to decide in 2014 to take a break from tennis. Ball artist Barty joined an Australian cricket team but then made her comeback on the tennis court in 2016. And how! She won the French Open in 2019 and Wimbledon in 2021 - ten years after her victory in the juniors. Barty has been number 1 in the WTA rankings without interruption since 2019 and, despite all her successes off the court, shows her best side: namely, completely on the ground.
# 1: Irina Khromacheva
Khromacheva was in the 2011 Wimbledon final of the juniors, in 2010 she had already reached number 1 in the ranking. The transition to the tour was difficult for her: In 2017 she cracked the Top 100 and made it to 89th place, but is currently only listed at 341th place. So far she has won 18 titles on the ITF tour, in doubles she was twice successful at WTA level and was once number 41 in the ranking. In 2019, she was suspended for a month for offering her place to another player in a qualifying match in Indian Wells in exchange for the prize money she would have received for her start.