Iga Swiatek vs Aryna Sabalenka: Who was the best WTA player of 2024?
An intriguing WTA season saw plenty of players find success – but two were undoubtedly out in front.
Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka were undoubtedly the leading WTA players of the season, sweeping multiple big titles and dominating the world rankings.
With the dust now settled on the season, we look at how the two compared in 2024 – and who should be recognised as the best player of the season.
Grand Slam titles
Both women tasted Grand Slam success in 2024, though Sabalenka had a better year at the majors.
The Belarusian successfully defended her title at the Australian Open before winning her first US Open title, 12 months after a heartbreaking loss in the 2023 final.
Sabalenka’s 18 match victories at Slams put her joint first on the WTA in 2024, a remarkable feat considering she was forced out of Wimbledon due to injury.
She was also hampered by illness during a quarter-final loss at Roland Garros, though still went 18-1 at the majors overall.
Swiatek’s standout moment of 2024 unsurprisingly came at Roland Garros, where she won the title for a fourth time.
However, she struggled at the other majors, reaching the last eight of the US Open but failing to make the second week in Melbourne or London.
Year-end ranking
Largely due to her Grand Slam success, Sabalenka finishes 2024 as the WTA year-end No 1 and will reign until at least the end of the Australian Open next month.
Sabalenka finishes 2024 on 9,416 points, compared to 8,295 points for world No 2 Swiatek.
The Pole will have the chance to return to world No 1 with a significant swing at the Australian Open, though then has more points to defend across the spring.
Overall titles
2024 was the most successful season for Sabalenka in terms of titles, with her haul of four the most she has ever won in a year.
Alongside victories in New York and Melbourne, the Belarusian also won WTA 1000 titles in Cincinnati and Wuhan to demonstrate her hard-court dominance.
However, that was not enough to topple Swiatek in this statistic, with the Pole capturing more titles than any other WTA player for the third straight season.
Outside of the French Open, she was also the champion in Indian Wells, Doha, Madrid, and Rome – beating Sabalenka in the latter two finals.
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Match wins
Swiatek topped the match win tally in 2022 and 2023 and again did so in 2024 with an impressive haul of 64 victories to her name.
The five-time Grand Slam champion tasted defeat just nine times in 73 matches, holding an overall win rate of 87.7% for the season.
Meanwhile, Sabalenka’s match win record was less spectacular – but still impressive.
The world No 1 went 56-14 for the year, with her haul of 56 wins and her win percentage of 80% only bettered by her chief rival this season.
Head-to-head
Sabalenka and Swiatek met three times in 2024, with the latter holding a narrow 2-1 lead for the season.
The Pole won in straight sets when they met in the more traditional clay of Rome, while Sabalenka triumphed in straights when they battled it out on the fast hard courts of Cincinnati.
Their best meeting of the year – and arguably the match of the whole season – came on the clay courts of Madrid, where conditions place both on a fairly even playing field.
Sabalenka could have easily triumphed to seal a third title at the event, though Swiatek saved three match points in an epic 7-5, 4-6, 7-6(7) victory.
Conclusion
Swiatek certainly found huge success in 2024, with her superior number of titles and match wins testament to that.
However, while not the only statistics worth caring about, the emphasis has always been on rankings and Slams – and Sabalenka undeniably has the edge in this area.
The Belarusian deserves to be the world No 1 and ultimately should be recognised as the leading WTA star of 2024.
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