We recently brought you the year in stats for the men’s tennis year and now it is time to look at the women for 2013. There is no doubt that Serena Williams is the player of the year with her eleven titles that included two Grand Slams – her second career French Open and the US Open, and she had the best record over her closest rivals.
Serena in fact won more singles titles than anyone else. Rafa Nadal led the men with ten. Surprisingly though it was not the likes of Victoria Azarenka or Maria Sharapova or Aga Radwanska who won the next highest number of titles. Take a guess and we will let you know later, who came in second for most titles.
They say you should never ask a woman her age, but heck these ladies should be proud of their achievements. Nine titles were won by someone aged 31, yup Serena, while those at 21 and 23 years of age won seven titles each. In the men’s the prime age was 26 and 27. In 2013 16 times title was won by a player 30 year or more, that compares to 13 from the year before.
The oldest final was in Marrakech, a combined age of 64 years (same as the men) saw Francesca Schiavone beat Lourdes Dominguez Lino while the youngest final was 42 year when Caroline Wozniacki beat Annika Beck in Luxembourg. There were just two over 30 finals, in the first week of the year in Shenzhen with Li Na and Klara Zakopalova and the Marrakech final.
And sticking with age, nine titles went to a player 21 and under with Simona Halep dominating that category with four.
32 different players won at least one title in 2013 which was just short of exactly half of the men that saw 65 win at least one title; among the ladies there were eight first time winners.
The United States was the nation that won the most titles with eleven and the USA was also involved with the most all-nation finals with 16. There were eleven all top ten finals including the Australian Open, French Open and US Open.
No prizes for guessing that Serena Williams had the longest win streak of the year with 34; she also had the second longest streak with 18. Serena also played the most matches of the year, 82 but it was Alize Cornet and Julia Goerges who played the most main draw tournaments with 27 each.
The longest final of the year in games was in Tashkent when Bojana Jovanovski beat Olga Govortsova, 35 games, while the shortest completed final was in Sydney, the second week of the year when Aga Radwanska defeated Dominika Cibulkova without the loss of a game … all up 12 games.
Arguably the biggest upset of the year was Michelle Larcher de Brito’s win over Maria Sharapova in the second round at Wimbledon was the upset of the year at Wimbledon, but mention could also be made for Sabina Lisicki’s win over Serena at Wimbledon, Bethanie Mattek-Sands’ win over Li Na at the French Open and Halep’s upset of Aga Radwanska at Rome.
So, now, have you guessed who was second to Serena Williams for the most titles in 2013? The answer is Simona Halep with six.
