Women's Tennis - Season Archive 2020

The season archive consists of a short summary, an overview of news items and a list of rankings.

Season Summary

The 2020 season will always be remembered as the Covid-19 season, with all competition suspended from March 14 until early August, and even then only a limited number of tournaments were held until the end of the season. As for the impact of the ratings system, all ratings were frozen during the hiatus, and so were all rating reductions for injuries and other absences. In the end, three of the four Grand Slam-tournaments have been played and many players have managed to get some competition after the restart. Some new tournaments were created to allow for more opportunities, such as a 128-player WTA125-tournament in Prague. But over the whole year, only half the usual number of matches have been processed in the rating system.

As for this year's on court highlights, a special mention goes to Sofia Kenin, who won her first Grand Slam in Australia and made the final of the French Open in October. These results have not led to a major rise up the rankings, however, as Kenin also boasted some heavy losses which cost her dearly. Kenin did rise a bit, from #13 to #10. The U.S. Open in September was won by Naomi Osaka, for the second time, beating a resurgent Victoria Azarenka in the final. Osaka and Azarenka ended the year as numbers 3 and 4 respectively. The most sensational result was the surprise victory by Iga Swiatek at Roland Garros, who beat all her opponents with the loss of at most five games, gaining 272 rating points in the process and ending the season at #12 in the rankings. Ashleigh Barty took over the #1 spot from Serena Williams early in the year and remained there, not having played after the Covid-break (just like many other Australian and Asian players who elected to stay grounded at home due to the still raging pandemic).

The most progress this year was made by the returning mother Tsvetana Pironkova, who played her first tournament in three years at the U.S. Open and reached the quarterfinal there, losing in three sets to Serena Williams. That run delivered her the incredible amount of 298 rating points, 82 of which she took off Muguruza. This rise was accelerated by Pironkova's lowly return rating of 4205. Another good run at the French Open led to Pironkova gaining 411 points in total, the most of all players in 2020. The other major risers of 2020 were Nadia Podoroska, semifinalist at Roland Garros, who gained 396 points for a rise to #61, and Leylah Fernandez, who accumulated 336 points for a rise to #76. The most points were lost by Rebecca Peterson, who forfeited 245 points for a drop from #33 to #93 in the rankings. The other major losers of 2020 were Donna Vekic (-200, #62), Anastasija Sevastova (-192, #73) and Serena Williams (-186, #8).

The rising stars of 2020 (top 10) were:

#	Player	Start rating	End rating	Difference
1	Pironkova	4205	4616	+411
2	Podoroska	4535	4931	+396
3	Fernandez	4541	4877	+336
4	Swiatek	4926	5245	+319
5	Trevisan	4503	4844	+341
6	Jabeur	4940	5178	+238
7	Zarazua	4534	4772	+238
8	Li, Ann	4548	4781	+233
9	Tig	4603	4822	+219
10	Brady	5011	5223	+212