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August 28, 2022
Transitions are indeed a part of life in virtually all aspects of it.
Most of us know that.
What can be challenging is when you are in the midst of one and you are confused with what is occurring.
Like women’s professional tennis.
As of this July 1, 2022 writing, some of the names in the top 15 rankings are Iga Swiatek, Ons Jabeur, Anett Kontaveit, Paula Badosa and the like.
Like, being America’s Jessica Pegula. A few years ago, we never would have thought so.
Gone are the dominating big names like Serena and Venus Williams, Maria Sharapova, Caroline Wozniacki, Justine Henin, Martina Hingis, Ashleigh Barty and Steffi Graf.
We’re not sure when we have seen the top ten rankings filled with names that we barely recognize.
Currently Iga Swiatek is the dominating player.
Is she the next great one where her name will be a household name?
Could she be great in any time period? Any era where the big stars roamed?
She did recently defeat Naomi Osaka who dominated for a few years.
Let’s look at her stats.
Iga Świątek is a Polish professional tennis player currently ranked world No. 1 by the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), and is the youngest player ranked in the top ten.
Iga was the champion at the 2020 French Open and is the first player representing Poland to win a Grand Slam singles title.
With the title, she became the youngest singles champion at the tournament since Rafael Nadal in 2005 and the youngest women’s singles champion at a major since Maria Sharapova in 2004. She won the title again in 2022.
Those are pretty heady credentials.
Following back-to-back WTA 1000 titles in 2022 at Qatar and Indian Wells, Ms. Świątek reached a career-high ranking of No. 2 on March 21, 2022.
Now, she is number one.
Imagine that.
She also won another WTA 1000 title in Miami, becoming the fourth woman to win the Sunshine Double.
With the subsequent retirement of world No. 1 Ashleigh Barty, she claimed the top ranking on April 4, 2022 and hasn’t looked back.
Looking forward, we feel to make a statement that she truly is a long time power broker, she needs to win the US Open. Fairly soon.
Like this year.
In her return to Grand Slam competition at Wimbledon, Serena Williams lost a heart breaker to France’s Harmony Tan.
In this transition period, how long does Serena Williams have?
The global news leader CNN was wondering the same thing. They shared, “As for Williams, who turned 40 last September, she is refusing to give up on her pursuit of a record-equaling 24th grand slam title, five years after she claimed her last at the Australian Open.”
That is good to know.
We would love to see more of Serena Williams, especially if she can play even close to her previous highest levels.
Apparently it is not to be.
Serena announced this would be her last US Open.
Who is next?
It certainly would answer a lot of questions during this transition era.
Our biggest question is, how good are the top ten players compared to the female warriors of the past? Did they just come along at the right time or would they dominate in any era?
Two names who did perform superbly at last year’s US Open are Emma Raducanu, currently ranked number eleven and Leylah Fernandez, clocking in at number 14.
Their current rankings prove their championship battle last year at the Open was not a fluke.
Emma is a British professional tennis player who reached her career-high ranking of No. 11 by the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) on April 25, 2022.
She is currently the British number one player.
Ms. Raducanu is the reigning US Open champion and the first British woman to win a Grand Slam singles title since Virginia Wade in the 1977 Wimbledon Championships.
Historic and impressive.
At the 2021 US Open, Emma became the first singles qualifier in the Open Era to win a Grand Slam title, beating Leylah Fernandez in the final, without dropping a set in the tournament.
It was the second Grand Slam tournament of her career as she holds the Open Era record for the fewest majors played before winning a title.
Leylah Fernandez is a Canadian professional tennis who reached a career-high ranking of No. 15 by the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA), achieved on June 6, 2022.
Now she is number 14. Inch by inch. As long as it is moving upwards.
Ms. Fernandez won her first WTA Tour title at the 2021 Monterrey Open.
As a 19-year-old, she finished runner-up at the 2021 US Open to fellow teenager Emma Raducanu, defeating three top-5 players in route to the finals.
All of this appears to speak to a major shift as we march towards the 2022 US Open.
Which brings us to Coco Gauff.
There were major early expectations of her, that were put on hold as she flamed out in one major match after another at the Grand Slams, but her recent surge to the French Open finals may signal that she is final ready to reach her projected potential.
Cori “Coco” Gauff is an American professional tennis player who is the youngest player ranked in the top 100 by the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) and has a career-high ranking of world No. 12 in singles achieved on June 20, 2022.
Ms. Gauff won her first WTA Tour singles title at the 2019 Linz Open aged 15, making her the youngest singles title-holder on the Tour since 2004.
Coco rose to prominence with a win over Venus Williams in the opening round at Wimbledon 2019.
So, the top ten players are new ones, and in the next few years, we will know who have emerged as the big dominate names that we will be speaking of for some time.
Naomi Osaka is slowly rising in the rankings, still is very young and recently indicated she is very determined to get back to the top. Will she be a stepping stone at the 2022 Open or reclaim her position of authority with a deep run or possible championship finish?
The good news about transition periods is that they tend to be mysterious and exciting because there is little history to prepare you for what is about to happen next.
Okay, for now, in this transition period, it is Iga Swiatek’s time to rule.
The 2022 US Open awaits her official statement.
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OPENING PHOTO fciwomenswrestling2.com Femcompetitor.com, grapplingstars.com, fciwomenswrestling.com fcielitecompetitor.com Rena-Schild-Shutterstock-photo-credit-Editorial-use
http://www.tennisnow.com/Rankings/WTA-Singles.aspx
https://www.cnn.com/2022/06/29/tennis/serena-williams-wimbledon-exit-spt-intl/index.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leylah_Fernandez
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coco_Gauff
https://www.fciwomenswrestling2.com
https://www.fcielitecompetitor.com/
https://fciwomenswrestling.com/
