Caroline Garcia, Elena Rybakina lead WTA in crucial serve statistics during 2022 season

Frenchwoman Caroline Garcia and Kazakhstan's Elena Rybakina both surpassed expectations in 2022, with the former finishing the year in the Top 10 while the latter captured her maiden Grand Slam at Wimbledon.

Both ladies were impressive on serve, employing that particular weapon to close out matches and lead the WTA tour in several serving statistics.

Five players hit 250 aces in 2022, led by Garcia, who served up a tour-best 394. Garcia becomes the seventh different player to lead since the Match Stats Era was introduced in 2008. Previous aces leaders include Karolina Pliskova (five times), Serena Williams (four times), Nadia Petrova (two times), Marion Bartoli, Julia Goerges and Elena Rybakina.

Rybakina, who led the tour in aces in 2020, finished the year with 370, the only other player to surpass the 300-ace mark. Pliskova, who finished atop the leaderboard in five of the previous seven seasons, finished fourth this year.

American Madison Brengle led the tour in first serve percentage, finishing at 75.4%. She is the sixth different player to lead this category in the past six years (since 2017). For seven straight years, from 2010-16, Sara Errani led the tour in first-serve percentage. Meanwhile, China’s Qinwen Zheng led the tour in first-serve points won percentage at 74.4%, finishing ahead of Rybakina (72.2%).

In 2022, Liudmila Samsonova led the tour by winning 81.0% of her service games, the highest season total since Serena Williams in 2016 (83.8%). Throughout the Match Stats Era, Williams led the tour in service games won percentage 10 times, including nine straight years (2008-16).

Samsonova also led the tour in service points won. Since 2008, only Williams, Ashleigh Barty and Naomi Osaka have finished the year with a higher service points won percentage. Furthermore, the Russian also led the tour in break points saved.