The Spanish tennis player Paula Badosa received this Monday the award for ‘Best comeback of the year’ from the awards given by the WTA, while the Belarusian Aryna Sabalenka has been designated as ‘Best tennis player’ of 2024.
The Catalan, who ended the 2023 season in July, just after Wimbledon, due to a back injury, showed “incredible resilience to return to the top of tennis in 2024,” according to the WTA. The 26-year-old former world number two demonstrated her improvement on clay by reaching the round of 16 at the WTA 1,000 in Rome and the third round at Roland Garros, before “consolidating her status back on hard courts in the summer and autumn.” “.
Thus, Badosa won the fourth title of her career in Washington, reached the semifinals of the WTA 1,000 events in Cincinnati (United States) and Beijing and at the WTA 500 in Ningbo (China), and equaled her best result in a ‘Grand Slam’ with a place in the quarterfinals at the US Open.
For her part, Sabalenka was named player of the year for the first time in her career after a season in which she reached seven finals and won four titles, defending her Australian Open crown, lifting her first US Open trophy and winning in the WTA 1,000 in Cincinnati and Wuhan (China). In addition, she regained number one in the WTA rankings in October and finished the season in that position after her fourth consecutive qualification for the WTA Finals.
Meanwhile, the Italians Sara Errani and Jasmine Paolini, current Olympic champions, were chosen as ‘Best doubles couple of the year’; the American Emma Navarro, as ‘Most Improved Player of the Year’; and the New Zealander Lulu Sun, as ‘Revelation Player of the Year’.