Naomi Osaka leads list of biggest winners in WTA rankings in 2024

The new WTA season is set to begin in less than a month, and players are preparing for the mega 2025 season. Once the season ends, fans always look up which players have been the most successful and gained the most spots in the rankings.

One of the players who had a massive jump in the 2024 season was Japan’s Naomi Osaka. The 27-year-old, who returned to the court after spending more than 12 months on the sidelines because of pregnancy, started the season as an unranked player but finished the season as the world number 59. The four-time Grand Slam winner played 37 matches across all competitions in 2024, where she won 20 and suffered defeats in 17.

Another player who registered a massive jump in the WTA rankings was Britain’s Emma Raducanu. The former world number 10, who returned to the court after spending nearly 12 months on the sidelines because of a fitness concern, started the year as the world number 285 and finished the season as the 58th-ranked player in women’s tennis. The one-time Grand Slam winner played 31 matches across all competitions in 2024, winning 18 and suffering defeats on 13 occasions. Former world number one Caroline Wozniacki, who returned to the court after a gap of more than two years, started the season at the 236th rank and finished at the 72nd rank.

America’s Emma Navarro witnessed the biggest jump into the WTA top-10 players as she jumped from world number 38 to number eight in the rankings. The 23-year-old won 53 matches in the season, joint third-most by a player in the women’s singles category. Interestingly, despite winning so many matches, Navarro ended up lifting just one title in the 2024 season, which was the Hobart International in January. She defeated Belgium’s Elise Mertens in the final with a score of 6-1, 4-6, 7-5.