Elena Rybakina emerged as part of a WTA Big Three with Iga Swiatek and Aryna Sabalenka in 2023, an exciting trio to take women's tennis forward and that reflected in the game of the Kazakh ace especially in the aces department.
Albeit surprisingly, it was Caroline Garcia who finished top of the overall standings for the most aces in 2023. The former World No.4 has 462 aces over the season with Elena Rybakina in second with 455.
In third place is Sabalenka who many would've expected to finish first with her thunderous serve and power play style, but she sits on 405 aces.
However, the percentage of aces won per number of matches played sees Rybakina in reality come out on top. This is given the amount of matches played in 2023 and with Rybakina in the business end of a lot of tournaments, it gives her the edge.
With this and average ages in a single match in 2023, it is Rybakina who technically albeit not in the figures takes the crown. She is currently preparing for the new season and will be playing World Tennis League next up, an exhibition league in Saudi Arabia over Christmas before the new season begins.
This comes after she spent most of the end of her season either with her mysterious illness she picked up at Roland Garros or lamenting scheduling woes with the WTA Finals in particular drawing the ire of the former Wimbledon champion.
"We are far from showing our best tennis, I feel that the quality so far is not the best," she said at the time.
"This can be seen above all in the number of unforced errors, although some suffer more than others. There are those who are adapting better but the conditions are difficult for everyone. In my case I don't feel like I can prove my worth, we are limited by the conditions, it's very easy to get stressed in a long rally because you don't know how the ball will react, there's not much in your control.
"If you try to dominate the point and dominate the rally, in the end you don't win it. I think the quality of tennis is not good, but it's not that we don't know how to play: it's just very difficult to play this way."
Elena Rybakina broke a new record last night. She has hit 235 aces in WTA 1000 events in 2023. This is the most ever in a single season. She passes Karolina Pliskova, who hit 234 aces in 2019. One of the greatest weapons women’s tennis has seen in a long time. 🇰🇿🩵🇰🇿
