Caroline Wozniacki and Petra Kvitova, by Getty Images
As the world’s finest female tennis players rest and prepare for the 2012 season we look back at an intense 10 months of competition on the WTA tour this year beginning with the four major championships.
Australian Open Championships (17th – 29th January)
Final: Kim Clijsters (3) d. Li Na (9) 3-6, 6-3, 6-3
In Melbourne 2004 finalist Kim Clijsters lifted her first Australian Open title by coming from a set down to see off a determined Li Na in a hard hitting final. Victory gave the Belgian a fourth Grand Slam singles crown and the third since her 2009 comeback.
Li had survived a match point to see off World No.1 Caroline Wozniacki in the semi-finals and was the first player from China to reach a major singles final.
French Open Championships (22nd May – 4th June)
Final: Li Na (6) d. Francesca Schiavone (5) 6-4, 7-6(0)
At Roland Garros Li Na went one step further by becoming the first Chinese Grand Slam singles champion as the 29 year-old saw off reigning champion Francesca Schiavone in the final. The sixth seed had seen off Petra Kvitova, Victoria Azarenka and Maria Sharapova en route to the final.
30 year-old Schiavone put in a superb effort to try and defend her crown and staged a stunning comeback from 6-1, 4-1 down against Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova in the quarter finals.
The Championships, Wimbledon (20th June – 2nd July)
Final: Petra Kvitova (8) d. Maria Sharapova (5) 6-3, 6-4
In her first major final 21 year-old Petra Kvitova stunned 2004 winner Maria Sharapova with a composed display of power tennis to lift her first Grand Slam title. The eighth seeded Czech sealed a straight sets victory with a thunderous ace struck down the middle.
Sharapova was appearing in her first Grand Slam final since winning the 2008 Australian Open and was most people’s choice to win against the less experienced Kvitova.
US Open Championships (29th August – 11th September)
Final: Sam Stosur (9) d. Serena Williams (28) 6-2, 6-3
Sam Stosur became the first Australian women for over 30 years to win a Grand Slam title when she stunned three-time champion Serena Williams to win the US Open title. The 27 year-old had battled through a series of epic matches to reach the final but was supreme against the American in the final to win in 73 minutes.
Williams had not dropped a set to reach the final – including victories over Azarenka and Wozniacki – and was riding an 18 match hard court winning streak but found herself thoroughly outplayed in her 17th major final.
Although she did not lift a major title in 2011 Denmark’s Caroline Wozniacki finished No.1 for a second consecutive season joining an elite club of eight players to have achieved the feat following Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf, Monica Seles, Lindsay Davenport, Martina Hingis and Justine Henin.
The 21 year-old reached the semi-finals in Melbourne and New York and took home a tour leading six WTA singles titles (tied with Kvitova) to take her career total to 18. She led the tour with 63 match wins and held the top ranking for all but one week during the year.
Petra Kvitova began 2011 as a promising talent ranked 34th and finished a tremendous season within touching distance of the World No.1 ranking holding the Wimbledon and WTA Championships titles and having led the Czech Republic to the Fed Cup title.
The Czech left-hander claimed titles on four surfaces and led the tour on prize money ($5,145,943), number of top ten wins (13) and number of top five wins (7). She will be a major threat at every tournament in 2012.
Both Li Na and Sam Stosur secured major breakthroughs by claiming their first Grand Slam crowns in 2011 but could not maintain that level of form for the entire year. Nonetheless both finished the year comfortably ranked in the top 10.
Former World No.1 Serena Williams only played six events during 2011 and yet staged an impressive comeback from life saving surgery to finish the year ranked 12th.
Having suffered a pulmonary embolism in March; the American returned at Eastbourne ranked 169th before her title defence at Wimbledon was ended by Marion Bartoli in the fourth round. However an excellent run of form on the US hard courts saw 13-time major champion win Stanford and Toronto and take her to the US Open final.
Germany’s Sabine Lisicki began 2011 ranked 179th after an injury ravaged 2010 and yet finished the year ranked a career high 15th after reaching the semi-finals at Wimbledon and lifting titles at Birmingham and Dallas.
Maria Sharapova finished the year ranked in the top 5 for the first time since 2007 after a resurgent season that saw her reach the final at Wimbledon, semi-finals in Paris and win Tier 1 titles in Rome and Cincinnati.
Kim Clijsters suffered a frustrating season beset by injury. Having lifted her fourth major crown in Melbourne the Belgian became the first Mother to rank No.1 when she gained the top spot from Wozniacki for a week in February.
However a series of injuries limited the 28 year-old to only three tournaments after March and she finished the year ranked 13th.
Seven-time major titlist Venus Williams played only three events and finished the year ranked outside the top 100 for the first time in 15 years. The 31 year-old American was diagnosed with the energy sapping Sjögren's Syndrome in September but is planning a comeback in 2012.
After falling in the third round of the Australian Open former world No.1 Justine Henin announced her retirement from tennis for the second time citing failure to recover from an elbow injury suffered at Wimbledon in 2010.
Since returning to the sport at the start of last year the Belgian reached another Australian Open final, lifted two titles and won a total of 34 matches to add to her impressive resume.
32 year-old former World No.7 Patty Schynder ended her 17 year professional career after the French Open. The Swiss left-hander lifted 11 career singles titles, reached the semi-finals of the 2004 Australian Open, as well as a further six major quarter finals, and finished seven seasons ranked in the top 20.
Kveta Peschke and Katarina Srebotnik finished 2011 as the No.1 team after a season that saw them claim six titles including a first Grand Slam crown at Wimbledon.
Veteran Americans Lisa Raymond and Liezel Huber teamed up in the spring and enjoyed a strong run of form from the summer winning four titles including the US Open title and the year-end WTA Championships in Istanbul – beating Peschke and Srebotnik in the final.
6 – Wozniacki/Kvitova
No.1 (12) Wozniacki (Dubai, Indian Wells, Charleston, Brussels, Copenhagen, New Haven), Azarenka (Marbella, Luxembourg), Vinci (Budapest), Zvonareva (Baku), Kvitova (Linz)No.2 (6) Zvonareva (Doha), Pavlyuchenkova (Monterray), Petkovic (Strasbourg), Petrova (College Park), Pervak (Tashkent), Bartoli (Osaka)No.3 (3) Clijsters (Australian Open), Radwanska (Carlsbad), Kvitova (Istanbul)No.4 (4) Kvitova (Paris), Hantuchova (Pattaya City), Dulko (Acapulco), Sharapova (Cincinnati) No.5 (2) Medina Garrigues (Palermo), Lisicki (Dallas)No.6 (6) Gajdosova (Hobart), Vinci (Barcelona), Li (French Open), Bartoli (AEGON International), Zahlavova Strycova (Quebec), Martínez Sánchez (Seoul)No.7 (4) Dominguez Lino (Bogatá), Sharapova (Rome), Vinci (s-Hertogenbosch), Scheepers (Ghangzhou)No.8 (5) Li (Sydney), Azarenka (Miami), Kvitova (Wimbledon), Hercog (Bastad), Cibulkova (Moscow)No.9 (2) Stosur (US Open), Radwanska (Tokyo)No.11 (1) Radwanska (Beijing)No.16 (1) Kvitova (Madrid)Unseeded (12) Arn (Auckland), Kvitova (Brisbane), Rybarikova (Memphis), Dokic (Kuala Lumpar), Goerges (Stuttgart), Brianti (Fès), Medina Garrigues (Estoril), Lisicki (AEGON Classic), Martínez Sánchez (Bad Gastein), S.Williams (Stanford, Toronto), Ivanovic (Bali)
169 – S.Williams (Stanford)
13 – Lisicki (Dallas)
66 – Scheepers (Ghangzhou)
18 – S.Williams (Won Stanford, Won Toronto, w/o 2nd round Cincinnati, RU US Open)
47 – Schiavone bt Kuznetsova 6-4, 1-6, 16-14 (Melbourne 4th round)
12 games - 6-0, 6-0 on ten occasions
5 – Arn d. Arvidsson 4-6, 7-5, 7-5 (Auckland 2nd round – 5mp at 3-5 second set)4 – Rybarikova d. King 6-1, 3-6, 7-6(9) (Memphis 1st round – 2mp at 4-5 third set and 2mp in final set tie-break)2 – Dokic d. Safarova 2-6, 7-6(9), 6-4 (Kuala Lumpar Final – 2mp 2nd set tie-break)2 – Vinci d. Kucova 4-6, 7-6(3), 6-3 (Budapest QF – 2 mp at 2-5 second set)1 – Kvitova d. Zahlavova Strycova 6-4, 6-7(6), 7-6(9) (Paris 2nd round – 1mp at 5-6 third set) 1 – Bartoli d. Safarova 6-3, 3-6, 7-6(7) (Eastbourne 1st round – 1mp at 5-6 3rd set tie-break)1 – Hercog d. Rezai 3-6, 6-4, 7-6(4) (Bastad 2nd round – 1mp at 5-6 third set)1 – Scheepers d. Hsieh 3-6, 7-6(1), 6-1 (Ghangzhou 2nd round – 1 mp at 5-6 second set)
Pavlyuchenkova (Monterrey) 19yrs, 8 months&3 days
Arn (Auckland) 31yrs, 8 months & 21 days
270 –Marion Bartoli
Statistics sourced with the help of the ATP and WTA.