The 2024 women’s tennis season can be considered over, with the WTA announcing the nominations for its annual awards.
There are no surprises in the category of player of the year. Iga Świątek is among the five candidates . However, the favorite for the award is Aryna Sabalenka , who won two Grand Slam tournaments this year and is the current leader of the ranking. Apart from them, Jasmine Paolini , Coco Gauff and Qinwen Zheng were nominated .
The absence of another Polish player is definitely more controversial. It concerns Magdalena Fręch and the lack of nominations among the players who have made the most progress. Fręch surprised the entire tennis community this year. She won a WTA 500 tournament in Guadalajara, was in the final in Prague. In addition, she reached the fourth round in the Australian Open, and also had good performances in Dubai and Beijing.
The WTA rankings show excellent progress. Fręch started the year in 70th place and ended up as the 25th player in the world. For a while she was even 22nd. Despite this, she was not among those distinguished by the WTA, which caused outrage among experts.
“Where is Magdalena Fręch?” – asks Canal+Sport journalist Joanna Sakowicz-Kostecka on the social networking site X.
Her colleague from the editorial office Żelisław Żyżyński echoed her . “What surname do you miss in the Most Improved category? I’ll give you a hint: it starts with F,” the journalist stated.
WTA Awards 2024 Nominations:
Player of the year: Iga Świątek, Coco Gauff, Aryna Sabalena, Jasmine Paolini, Qinwen Zheng
The player who made the most progress (a tennis player who was in the TOP 100 ranking and made significant improvements during the season: Emma Navarro, Diana Sznajder, Danielle Collins, Marta Kostiuk, Anna Kalinska
