Iga Swiatek leads Coco Gauff and Emma Raducanu in most-Googled female athletes list
Three tennis players occupy the top three places in the latest list of the most Googled female athletes with Iga Swiatek sitting at No 1 ahead of Coco Gauff and Emma Raducanu.
The list – compiled by OLBG – takes into account the total number of Google searches between September 2022 and August 2023 and four-time Grand Slam winner Swiatek was by far and away the most-searched female athlete.
The Pole had 15.6m searches, Gauff 10.1m and Raducanu 9.6m while Naomi Osaka comes in at No 9 with 5.4m searches, Jessica Pegula is at 10 with 4.3m and Leylah Fernandez at No 11 with 3.1m.
Swiatek’s dominant period
Swiatek enjoyed a superb end to the 2022 tennis season as she won her third Grand Slam title, the US Open, in September and also won the Ostrava Open – her eighth title of the year – a few weeks later.
She finished the year as the world No 1 and the top prize-money earner with $9,875,525 – the fifth biggest prize-money total in a single WTA Tour season.
The 22-year-old hasn’t quite hit the same heights during the first eight months of this year, but she still managed to successfully defend her French Open title while she also won three other titles in the September to August timeframe.
After failing to defend her US Open trophy in September, she lost her world No 1 ranking to Aryna Sabalenka after the tournament.
Gauff makes her move
American Gauff has enjoyed a sensational year, although her biggest success came after the August 2023 cutoff date.
The 19-year-old started the year with a title run at the Auckland Classic in January while she reached the quarter-final of the French Open.
After a mid-season slump, Gauff bounced back in August as she won her first WTA 500 title at the Citi DC Open in Washington Open and followed it up with her maiden WTA 1000 trophy at the Cincinnati Masters.
Gauff, who is currently at No 3 in the WTA Rankings, then went on to win her first Grand Slam at the US Open, although that tournament was only completed on September 9.
Raducanu is still a force
The fact that Raducanu sits at No 3 shows her incredible pulling power as she has struggled with her form and injuries since her incredible 2021 US Open title run.
The 20-year-old played only 17 matches and won nine of them during the 12-month period in question while she also dropped out of the top 200 in the WTA Rankings.
After battling ankle and wrist injuries for several months, Raducanu opted to undergo surgery in May.
Osaka, meanwhile, also missed the bulk of the 12-month period as she finished her 2022 season early before announcing in January this year that she would miss the entire campaign as she was expecting her first child. The four-time major champion gave birth to a girl named Shai in July.
Pegula – the daughter of Terry and Kim Pegula who owns the NFL outfit the Buffalo Bills and NHL team the Buffalo Sabres – won the Guadalajara Open in October last year and the Canadian Open in August. She also reached the quarter-final of last year’s US Open and this year’s Australian Open and French Open.
Canada’s Fernandez, who finished runner-up to Raducanu at the 2021 US Open, has struggled with injury over the past year and slumped to No 96 in the rankings at one point. However, she has nursed her way back and is on the rise again while she finished runner-up alongside Taylor Townsend in the women’s doubles at the French Open.
Most popular female athletes
1. Iga Swiatek Tennis Poland 15.6m
2. Coco Gauff Tennis United States 10.1m
3. Emma Raducanu Tennis United Kingdom 9.6m
4. Alexia Putellas Soccer Spain 7.8m
5. Alex Morgan Soccer United States 7.1m
6. Sam Kerr Soccer Australia 6.9m
7. Simone Biles Gymnastics United States 6.3m
8. Megan Rapinoe Soccer United States 5.5m
9. Naomi Osaka Tennis Japan 5.4m
10. Jessica Pegula Tennis United States 4.3m
11. Leylah Fernandez Tennis Canada 3.1m
12. Candace Parker Basketball United States 2.4m
13. PV Sindhu Badminton India 2.2m
14. Lydia Ko Golf New Zealand 1.8m
15. Asisat Oshoala Soccer Nigeria 0.6m
