
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.
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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%).
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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.
Growing up in a household where soccer was king, my earliest memories are filled with chants from packed stadiums and the rhythm of a ball being passed across neighborhood streets. But somewhere along the way, the quiet elegance and raw emotion of tennis pulled me in. What began as a curiosity became a lifelong passion; not just for the sport itself, but for the stories it tells: of grit, of heartbreak, of improbable comebacks and human resilience.
As a tennis writer, I bring the observational lens of someone who didn’t grow up in the sport, but fell in love with it as an outsider; a perspective that lets me see both its technical beauty and its emotional depth. Over the years working with TennisUpToDate, I’ve had the privilege of reaching more than 3.5 million readers worldwide, with one of my features ranking among the site’s top three articles.
With a background in storytelling and a creative mind always searching for meaning beyond the scoreboard, I aim to craft narratives that go deeper than results and rankings. Whether it’s a rising star breaking through or a veteran fighting off Father Time, I try to capture the heartbeat behind the headlines.
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mandoist09-11-2026 - Ironically, Martina became a U.S. Citizen about the same time as the Orange Convicted Felon & Abuser was just beginning on his road to losing all Daddy's Millions!!
mandoist09-11-2026 - "Another fresh start is in the cards." Thanks for the Humor!! I'm guessing this is the minimum one can do to keep all your sponsors hanging-on in perpetuity?
mandoist09-11-2026 - Vukov is doing this to Lena... AGAIN!!!!! WTA's autonomous collective should be dismantled for allowing Vukov to re-emerge from his hand-slapping suspension. Just ask WTA employees how that's been going lately as they witness his continued verbal abuses. Women's Pro Tennis should start over.
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mandoist06-11-2026 - Enough of her bullshit. Go marry someone.
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