In a world where Serena Williams is head and shoulders above the competition, it’s not a question of which tennis player is going to finish first in the WTA rankings at the end of the year, it’s which player will be second.
Serena defeats the competition as easily as Jack Hammer outsmarts the desperate Evil Dr. Wüten in the classic online slot game by NetEnt casinos. In fact, this and other slot games you can play on your mobile are both an entertaining way to pass the time, but also give you an insight into how Serena feels when she sends her opponents packing.
1. Serena Williams
This is the third year in a row that Serena is number one on the WTA rankings. She was off to a flying start at the beginning of the season and defeated Sharapova at the Australian Open. This was Sharapova’s 16th consecutive defeat at the hands of the American, and she is surely having nightmares just at the thought of Serena.
Williams then went on to announce that she is going to stop the boycott towards the Indian Wells Masters tournament, which has been going on for 14 years before that. She got to the semis there, but had to forfeit the match due to problems with her knee.
At the Miami Open she won her eighth title there, and managed to take her winning run to 21 consecutive matches without a loss. The Miami title was followed by the French Open one, and the French Open one was followed by the Wimbledon title. In doing so, Serena completed the ‘Serena Slam,’ meaning that she won all 4 majors in a row. That was the second time she had achieved to do that.
However, she didn’t succeed in winning the ‘Grand Slam’. At the US Open she reached the semi-final and had to face Roberta Vinci, who was a huge underdog before the match. During the match though, Vinci outplayed the American and recorded one of the biggest surprises in 2015.
2. Simona Halep
Halep had a great 2014, and this year she has kept the same level of performance. At the Australian Open she managed to reach the quarter-final round where she suffered a surprise defeat by the tenth-seeded Ekaterina Makarova.
At the Indian Wells Masters, Halep capitalized on Serena Williams’ injury and withdrawal in the semi-final, and progressed to the final where she defeated Jelena Jankovic 2-1 in the most important match of her career and her highest point of the season.
Her lowest point of the season however, was her first round elimination at Wimbledon at the hands of Jana Cepelova. She did manage to recover from that defeat though, and reached the semis at the US Open later in the season.
3. Garbine Muguruza
The Spanish, slash, Venezuelan tennis player should no longer be considered as a star in rising. She has already risen and is currently number 3 at the WTA rankings. She’s still only 22 and has the tennis world at her feet.
The undoubted highlight of this season for her was her participation in the Wimbledon final. There, she sent several high profile players home early. Kerber, Wozniacki, Bacsinszky and Radwańska were all dispatched with style by the talented youngster on her way to the final and the match-up with Serena Williams. She lost in straight sets, but her road to the final was enough for her to get in the Top 10 for the first time in her career.
4. Maria Sharapova
What is so remarkable about Sharapova’s season is that even though she missed four months of competitive matches, she still managed to finish 4th at the end of the year. Basically, had she stayed fit until the end of the season she could have claimed 2nd place in the WTA rankings.
At the start of the season she reached the final at the Australian Open, where she expectedly lost to Serena. Regardless of the loss though, the year ahead looked promising for the Russian. However, a poor run of form, and several injuries, resulted in a less than impressive year for Sharapova, who is now 5th in the rankings, behind Agnieszka Radwanska.
5. Agnieszka Radwanska
The Pole didn’t start the season impressively and had to part ways with her coach Martina Navratilova. Radwanska’s first title of the season was at the 2015 Toray Pan Pacific Open in Tokyo, and it was won in late September. If there was ever a strong finish to the season, this was it.
Before that, she managed to return to the Top 10 in the rankings by reaching the semi-finals at Wimbledon. It was her third appearance in four years. Unfortunately for her though, she was eliminated by the talented Garbine Muguruza in three sets.
However, her biggest achievement of the season and her career in general, was when she defeated Petra Kvitova and won her first WTA Finals title in Singapore. Because of the strong finish to the season, and defying the odds Radwanska finished as number 5 at the rankings last year.
