Women’s tennis 2023 rewind: Iga Swiatek reigns supreme while Sabalenka, Vondrousova, and Gauff break through

“Character consists of what you do on the third and fourth tries.” – James Michener, American author

Iga Swiatek, the queen of women’s tennis, faced three new contenders for her throne in 2023. The trio - Aryna Sabalenka, Marketa Vondrousova and Coco Gauff - captured their maiden Grand Slam titles, but only after their persistence and passion overcame years of failure and frustration.

Sabalenka, a 24-year-old Belarussian, struck the first encouraging blow for the emergent stars at the Australian Open when she outlasted another New Gen standout, Elena Rybakina, in a memorable final. During her six-year pro career, Sabalenka, like many players, learned more from her defeats than her victories, especially upset losses.

Animated at her best, overwrought at her worst, Sabalenka had previously suffered three heartbreaking semifinal losses at Grand Slam events, all 6-4 in the deciding set. The most distressing setback came when she was heavily favored against 5’4” Leylah Fernandez at the 2021 US Open. Recalling these three defeats, Sabalenka said, “I was, like, overdoing things. I was rushing a lot. I was nervous a lot. Screaming, doing all this stuff.”

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Over-reacting when she lost big points, the high-strung Sabalenka worked with a psychologist, as so many other women pros do, including world No. 1 Swiatek. Plagued by double faults, averaging a woeful 15.8 a match in 2022, Sabalenka even resorted to serving underhand on occasion. “I thought it was mental, but it wasn’t,” she said after beating No. 12 Belinda Bencic 7-5, 6-2 in the Australian Open fourth round. “At the end of the season when I started working with a biomechanics guy, he helped me a lot.”

So Sabalenka fired the psychologist and hired biomechanics expert Gavin MacMillan in August 2022. Studying videos of her serve, MacMillan found and helped her correct three flaws: her elbow dropped too much, she tossed the ball too high and too far to the right, and she dropped her head too soon. With a streamlined, smoother service motion, Sabalenka averaged just 4.7 double faults a match this season, going into the AO final.

This massive serving improvement plus speedier movement—she did wind sprints before matches at Adelaide—paid huge dividends for the dedicated Belarusian. She left no stone unturned, adding a statistician to her team to provide her with match data.

Even in the worst of times, no one had ever questioned her courage and competitiveness.

Dubbed “The Warrior Princess” and sporting a tiger tattoo on her left forearm, Sabalenka notched 10 wins in 2022 after dropping the opening set. Sound technique breeds confidence and calmness. Finishing 2022 with a bang at the WTA Finals, she defeated Swiatek, Ons Jabeur, and Jessica Pegula to join Steffi Graf and Serena and Venus Williams as the only women ever to beat the No. 1, No. 2, and No. 3 at the same tournament.

Sabalenka’s semifinal foe at the Australian Open was Magda Linette, an overlooked 30-year-old Pole, who also epitomized perseverance. Linette emerged from the weakest quarter of the draw to make her first semifinal in her 30th Grand Slam event. The slightly built, 5’7” giant-slayer upset four seeds: No. 4 Caroline Garcia, 7-6(3), 6-4; No. 16 Anett Kontaveit 3-6, 6-3, 6-4; No. 19 Ekaterina Alexandrova (a Russian playing without a flag beside her name) 6-3, 6-4; No. 30 and two-time major runner-up, Karolina Pliskova, 6-3, 7-5.

Linette credited her late-career success to a positive attitude. “All through my life, I’ve been taking mistakes and losses very personally, so I had to disconnect those two things,” she said. “It was really difficult because I felt a lot of times that the misses, the mistakes, were defining me.”

A huge underdog in the semifinals, the counter-punching Linette absorbed Sabalenka’s brute power for nearly a set before the Belarusian reeled off the first six points of the tiebreaker and romped to a 7-6(1), 6-2 victory.

The new Sabalenka steamrolled 10 straight opponents without dropping a set to start 2023, six of them at the Aussie Open. But could she keep her momentum and nerves in the biggest match of her life?

In sharp contrast, Rybakina, a 23-year-old, Russian-born naturalized Kazakh who captured the 2022 Wimbledon, is renowned for her stoical demeanor. “Most players are trying to learn how to be calm. I already know, and sometimes I’m trying to show more [emotion].”

Aryna Sabalenka celebrates after defeating Elena Rybakina in the Australian Open final. | Photo Credit: AP

Aryna Sabalenka celebrates after defeating Elena Rybakina in the Australian Open final. | Photo Credit: AP

Confronted with a much tougher draw than Sabalenka, Rybakina eliminated 2022 AO finalist Danielle Collins 6-2, 5-7, 6-2 and overpowered Swiatek—the three-time major champion who in 2022 won 37 straight matches—6-4, 6-4 in the fourth round. Rybakina then knocked out 17th seed Jelena Ostapenko, 6-2, 6-4 in the quarterfinals after the overweight 2017 French Open champion ousted 7th-seeded Coco Gauff 7-5, 6-3. Next, she belted 30 winners, including nine aces, to stop Victoria Azarenka, the 2012–13 Aussie champion, 7-6, 6-3 to make her second major final.

“It’s all about serves and nerves,” predicted ESPN analyst and former No. 4 Brad Gilbert on the duel between two of the most powerful ball strikers in tennis history.

On her fourth break point in the pivotal seventh game of the deciding set, Sabalenka crushed a bounce overhead winner for a 4-3 lead. As the Belarusian would later say she told herself, “Nobody tells you it’s going to be easy. You just have to work for it, work for it till the last point.”

Serving at 5-4, Sabalenka needed four championship points. When Rybakina’s forehand landed a few inches beyond the baseline, Sabalenka fell on her back to celebrate her 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 career-changing triumph.

Sabalenka cried tears of joy, covering her face. She then embraced the disappointed loser and raced to her player’s box where she hugged her joyful team.

At her press conference, Sabalenka explained the key to her breakthrough, “I really needed those tough losses to kind of understand myself a little bit better. It was like a preparation for me. I actually feel happy that I lost those matches, so right now I can be a different player and just a different Aryna, you know?”

A variation on the same theme of James Michener’s aphorism about character played out at Roland Garros. But the ending was different because the protagonist was a superstar competing on her favourite surface.

Swiatek, the young queen, had ruled with an iron fist. In seizing three Grand Slam titles, Swiatek had never lost a set in the final. This time, Her Majesty dominated Karolina Muchova 6-2, 3-0, and her reign seemed assured.

It was almost impertinent to think a 100-1 pre-tournament longshot could turn the massive tide and challenge the defending champion and world No. 1.

Swiatek, 22, was steamrolling the four-year-older but less experienced Czech. Much like the legendary Graf, the 5’9” Pole combines a sledgehammer forehand with a solid backhand, blazing speed, and the intense focus of a diamond cutter.

But Muchova, whose No. 43 ranking belied her natural athleticism and versatile game, has always believed she was destined for stardom. A string of injuries, however, derailed her career ever since a huge growth spurt at age 16 damaged her knees and back. Sidelined by an abdominal injury for seven months 2021, she missed the 2022 Australian Open. Muchova was in such bad health, she recalled, “Some doctors told me, maybe you’ll not do sport anymore.” Her positivity and perseverance were tested again a year ago at Roland Garros when the hard-luck Czech left the court in a wheelchair and in tears after spraining an ankle during a third-round match.

Now Muchova, in her first major final, would have to summon all her positivity and perseverance.

Could Karolina somehow conjure another miracle comeback after rallying to stun No. 2 Sabalenka 7-6, 6-7, 7-5 in a semifinal thriller? Down 5-2 in the deciding set, she fended off a match point and reeled off 20 of the last 24 points.

Despite winning just one career title, Muchova showed her terrific potential by racking up a perfect 5-0 record against No. 1-ranked players—with four coming at the majors and on all three surfaces.

Hitting more aggressively in the second set against Swiatek, Muchova, a self-described “tough cookie,” rebounded to make it 6-2, 3-3. NBC analyst John McEnroe offered, “Muchova is thinking if she’s going to lose, she’s going to go down swinging.”

In a stunning turnabout, the Czech took the set 7-5 and led 4-3 in the deciding set only to get broken for 4-all. When Swiatek fell behind love-30, she responded with a booming, 94-mph forehand winner. The crowd reacted with chants of “Iga! Iga! Iga!” The Pole held serve for 5-4. Succumbing to nerves, the valiant but now-erratic Czech faltered in the last game, sadly double-faulting on championship point.

Iga Swiatek poses with the French Open trophy. | Photo Credit: Getty Images

The winner and still Queen of Clay bent down on her knees and cried tears of joy and relief. Swiatek’s 6-2, 5-7, 6-4 triumph lasted two hours and 46 minutes, the longest match in her illustrious French Open career.

“She was burdened by the pressure of this one,” said NBC analyst Mary Carillo. “She passed the test.”

The runner-up also wept in her chair as the crowd cheered for both players. During the trophy ceremony, Muchova, “exhausted but happy,” talked about the bittersweet result. “This was so close, but yet so far. That happens when you play one of the best: Iga. I learned I can make it to the final at a Grand Slam. It’s very motivational for me.”

Who would thrive on—or succumb to—the pressure at Wimbledon? Especially when the stakes are highest on the grandest stage of all—Centre Court in the final. As the legendary Chris Evert said, “It’s the occasion sometimes more than the opponent that gets you nervous.”

Let’s start with the feel-good story of this anything-can-happen fortnight. Elina Svitolina, just nine months after giving birth to daughter Skai, ambushed four Grand Slam champions. Venus Williams, 26 years after her debut at Wimbledon, went down 6-4, 6-3; then 2020 Australian Open winner Sofia Kenin 7-6(3), 6-2; and two-time Australian titlist Victoria Azarenka in a 2-6, 6-4, 7-6(11-9) marathon, finishing the super-close tiebreaker with an overhead winner and an ace. When Svitolina didn’t shake hands with Azarenka of Belarus—following the practice of other Ukrainian players after a match against a Russian or Belarusian—Centre Court spectators booed Azarenka as she exited.

Svitolina called winning the Battle of the Moms “the second biggest moment of my life after giving birth to my daughter.” But the best was yet to come.

Swiatek, her quarterfinal opponent, was the pre-tournament favourite despite never getting past the round of 16 in three previous appearances. The Pole escaped two match points in edging 14th-seeded Bencic 6-7(4), 7-6(2), 6-3. “Champions rise to the occasion,” said ESPN analyst Darren Cahill.

But Swiatek, whose Western forehand misfired repeatedly on the low-bouncing grass, could not escape the inspired Svitolina as she displayed more power and variety than ever. The wild card upset the No. 1-ranked player 5-7, 7-6(5), 6-2. With a look of disbelief, relief, and joy, Svitolina received a standing ovation from the Centre Court crowd.

“Having a child made me a different person, and I look at everything differently,” said Svitolina, whose husband Gael Monfils cared for Skae in their Switzerland home.

Her Cinderella run ended, though, when Vondrousova stopped her 6-3, 6-3 in a lacklustre semifinal. Not even spectator cries of “We love you, Elina” could ignite a comeback. Svitolina appeared emotionally drained from her exciting wins and her long-term anxiety over her Ukraine compatriots about whose suffering since the Russian invasion she often spoke.

Jabeur, a late-blooming Tunisian at 29, yearned for her first Grand Slam title after losing last year in the Wimbledon final to Rybakina and the US Open final to Swiatek.

Would the third time be a charm? Jabeur’s results before the final were nothing short of terrific as she surmounted a brutal draw. Blending power with deceptive drop shots and creative angles, she defeated 2019 US Open titlist Bianca Andreescu and two-time Wimbledon winner Petra Kvitova. Then, in what she called her “revenge tour,” she took out two more Grand Slam champions.

The 5’6” sorceress with a smile—she’s known as “The Minister of Happiness” in Tunisia—showed her killer instinct. Avenging her 2022 loss to heavy-hitting Rybakina, Jabeur displayed her usual bag of tricks but also belted 35 winners to overcome the 6’ Kazakh 6-7(5), 6-4, 6-1, taking eight of the last 10 points with bold shot-making. She displayed her confidence with this declaration. “If you want to hit hard, I’m here to hit as fast as I can.”

With more revenge on her mind, Jabeur took on Sabalenka in a semifinal featuring contrasting styles. The Belarusian slugger whipped Jabeur in the Wimbledon quarterfinals two years ago and at the 2022 WTA Finals. Sabalenka’s stentorian screams and grunts proved almost as intimidating to opponents as her thunderous serves and groundstrokes.

After taking the opening set tiebreaker 7-5, Aryna surged to a 4-2 lead in the second set, taking 10 straight points. Even though Sabalenka won the Australian Open in January, she had a history of losing close matches, and a similar fate would befall the Belarusian again. The more versatile Jabeur reversed the momentum and, on her third match point, closed out the 6-7, 6-4, 6-3 victory with a perfectly placed, 92-mph ace.

Jabeur had yet another score to settle in the final. Although she split six career matches with Vondrousova, the 24-year-old Czech won their two matches this year at the Aussie Open and Indian Wells.

Last year, two wrist surgeries sidelined Vondrousova for six months, forcing the pensive Czech to attend Wimbledon in a cast. “You never know if you can be at that level again.”

Vondrousova certainly didn’t have any reason to think she would play the tournament of her life at Wimbledon. Neither did the odds-makers who made Vondrousova an 80-1 longshot. After all, she’d won just four main-draw matches on grass in her pro career before this stunning fortnight. In stark contrast, Jabeur led the WTA Tour with 21 grass wins since 2021.

Before the final, Jabeur ironically said, “It’s like watching a movie and you don’t know what’s going to happen. That’s the beauty of tennis.” Perhaps she had a premonition.

Nerves are unpredictable and can strike at any time in a match. This time, Jabeur, the No. 6 seed and solid favourite, led unseeded Vondrousova 4-2 in the opening set after breaking serve at love. Just when the Tunisian appeared likely to take the set, she succumbed to an attack of nerves and crumbled. Vondrousova grabbed 16 of the last 18 points. Not even the loud cheers of the partisan 15,000-capacity crowd could save the jittery, error-prone Jabeur.

After Vondrousova finished her 6-4, 6-4 victory with a lunging backhand volley winner for her first Grand Slam title, the crestfallen Jabeur revealed her feelings. “Honestly, I felt a lot of pressure, a lot of stress [before the final]. The better results I have, the more pressure I feel.”

“I never thought I could win Wimbledon,” said Vondrousova, who became the first unseeded ladies’ champion at Wimbledon since 1927. “After everything I’ve been through, it’s been a crazy journey.”

One of the many tattoos adorning Vondrousova’s body says, “No rain, no flowers.” She plans to add another tattoo to celebrate her title. It’s part of a pre-tournament bet with her coach Jan Mertl that they both have to get a tattoo if she succeeded at Wimbledon. “I think he’s scared,” she told ESPN, with a laugh.

Marketa Vondrousova (L) and Ons Jabeur (R) with their respective Wimbledon trophies after the final. | Photo Credit: AFP

Youth was served at the US Open. For the 16th time at the last 17 majors, the women’s singles champion was 26 or younger. This year, the much younger, precocious, and popular Gauff, just 19, won her first Grand Slam title.

When Gauff, a 15-year-old qualifier ranked 313th, upset Venus at the 2019 Wimbledon and streaked to the fourth round, the Florida whiz kid was anointed as The Next Great American Player. “If she’s not number one in the world by 20, I will be absolutely shocked,” predicted 1980s superstar John McEnroe.

Pushed by her ambitious father, Corey—much like Richard Williams had driven his talented daughters Venus and Serena 30 years earlier—Gauff, after her career breakthrough, declared, “I want to be the greatest. My dad told me that I could do this when I was eight. My dream was to win, and that’s what happened. I think people limit themselves too much. I like to shoot high.”

When Gauff raced to the 2022 French Open final without dropping a set, the pressure of her debut major final showed as she started the match nervously. Swiatek, the new superstar on clay, capitalized and outclassed her 6-1, 6-3. The Pole would go on to beat her the first seven times they played.

After Gauff edged No. 10 seed Muchova 6-4, 7-5 in the semifinals at this US Open, she talked with a mature perspective about what has lessened the pressure that used to burden her. “At first, I used to think negative things, like: ‘Why is there so much pressure? Why is this so hard? Blah, blah, blah.’ I realize in a way it’s pressure but it’s not. I mean, there are people struggling to feed their families, people who don’t know where their next meal is going to come from, people who have to pay their bills. That’s real pressure, that’s real hardship, that’s real life. In a very privileged position, I’m getting paid to do what I love and getting support to do what I love.”

Two additions to her team also helped take her game to the highest level. Pere Riba, a former ATP pro from Spain, became her coach before Wimbledon, and Brad Gilbert, who helped Andre Agassi achieve greatness, became a consultant in July. The theme for Gauff for the US Open was, “Be more physical.” Riba advised her to put more spin on her sometimes erratic Western forehand to increase its consistency and make the ball bound above the strike zone of opponents. When Gilbert noticed how deadly serious, she looked during matches, he encouraged her to have fun out there much like the smiling Carlos Alcaraz, her young male counterpart.

Gauff picked up momentum this summer, winning the Washington, D.C. title and her first 1000 event at Cincinnati. The advice of her new coaches had quickly paid off. And her first victory over No. 1 Swiatek—7-6, 3-6, 6-4 in the Cincy semis—further boosted her confidence going into the US Open.

At Flushing Meadows, where Gauff’s best showing was a modest quarterfinal finish a year ago, she twice dropped the opening set and had to fight for early-round wins over cagey veteran Laura Siegemund and solid-stroking, 32nd-seeded Elise Mertens. Gauff also needed three sets to overcome wild card Caroline Wozniacki, who successfully returned to the tour after a three-and-a-half year hiatus when she gave birth to a daughter and a son. Always a fan favourite, the former No. 1 defeated No. 11 seed Kvitova and hard-hitting, 2020 Australian Open finalist Jennifer Brady, also on the comeback trail.

Coco Gauff celebrates a point against Aryna Sabalenka during the US Open final. | Photo Credit: Getty Images

The most bizarre episode of Gauff’s fairytale fortnight came when she led Muchova 6-4, 1-0. Three climate change protestors in “End Fossil Fuel” T-shirts interrupted play for 50 minutes, refusing to stop chanting. When tournament security guards and police came to remove the protestors high up in the nosebleed section of Arthur Ashe Stadium, one thwarted them for a while because he glued his feet to the cement floor. As fans chanted “Kick him out!” a relaxed Gauff munched on fresh fruit and took practice serves.

The Gauff-Muchova semifinal failed to live up to expectations until the last four games. Serving at 5-6 to force a match tiebreaker, Muchova fended off five match points, the fifth on a swinging forehand volley winner. The next point produced a thrilling, 40-shot exchange that ended when the speedy Gauff tracked down a Muchova drop shot and smacked a forehand winner. On the sixth match point, Muchova hit an unforced backhand error and Gauff prevailed 6-4, 7-5.

“I knew I had the legs and the lungs to outlast her,” Gauff said afterward about the critical marathon point. “It was whether I had the mentality and patience to do it. After 10 or 15 shots, I was, like, ‘Well, this is going to change the match.’ I knew that if I could win that rally, that next match point was going to go my way. That’s what happened.”

Meanwhile, Sabalenka, who had already earned enough points to claim the No. 1 ranking on Sept. 11, looked unbeatable in her first five matches, allowing her victims no more than five games. After overpowering 13th-seeded Daria Kasatkina 6-3, 6-1 to reach the quarters, ESPN asked the Belarusian what she learned this year. She replied, “I learned: don’t let your feelings distract or destroy you.”

Her semifinal against Madison Keys, the 2017 runner-up here, featured two of the heaviest sluggers on the WTA Tour. The underdog Keys pounded huge forehands to take the 6-0 opening set, but played a dreadful 7-1 tiebreaker, committing six unforced errors, to give away the second set, 7-6. Sabalenka, sustaining her power and consistency, took 14 of the last 19 points to close out the turnaround 0-6, 7-6, 7-6 triumph with a 10-5 tiebreaker at 12:56 a.m.

The final pitted Sabalenka, the best offensive player, against Gauff, the best defensive player. Specifically, would Sabalenka’s serve or volatile temperament break down? Would Gauff’s extreme Western forehand with its long backswing hold up? There was no question about this intangible: Nearly all the 23,000 spectators would root for the American.

Sabalenka grabbed the first set 6-2, but the momentum changed suddenly with her serving at 1-2, 40-30 in the second set. Gauff conjured a nifty crosscourt backhand passing shot winner, and many in the delighted crowd gave her a standing ovation. The deflated Sabalenka reacted with an unforced forehand error and a double fault.

After taking the middle set 6-3, Gauff smartly absorbed and defused Sabalenka’s power and added topspin for forehand consistency to surge ahead 4-0. Like a veteran champion, she served out the last game at love for a stunning 2-6, 6-3, 6-2 triumph.

After belting a backhand passing shot winner on championship point, Gauff went down on her back and cried tears of joy and relief. She hugged Sabalenka, wept some more, and went down on her knees to pray. A devout Christian, Gauff said, “I don’t pray for results. I pray to do my best.”

Gauff then romped into the stands, where she embraced her emotional parents and team. She later said, “That was the first time I saw my dad cry.”

During the trophy ceremony, Gauff told the happy crowd, “It means so much to me. I feel like I’m a little bit in shock at this moment. That French Open loss was a heartbreak for me, but I realized God puts you through tribulations and trials, and that makes this moment even sweeter than I could imagine.”

At 19, Gauff became the youngest American to win the US Open since 17-year-old Serena, her idol, in 1999.

Canada, led by Leylah Fernandez, captured the BJK Cup, the international team competition renamed from the Fed Cup to honour women’s tennis pioneer and all-time great Billie Jean King. Now 80, King is still crusading to improve the sports she loves and proposed combining the Billie Jean King Cup with the Davis Cup to create a “World Cup” of tennis.

“I always want the men and women together at tournaments,” said King, who founded the mixed-gender, highly innovative World Team Tennis League in 1974. “The World Cup has become more and more important because of the football ... the whole world understands World Cup…. [I went] down to the World Cup in Australia and watched the women there, they had 75,000 people ... it’s very exciting, the possibilities are unlimited.”