(Reuters) – Three contenders for the women’s singles title at the Australian Open, which starts on Sunday:
ELENA RYBAKINA (KAZAKHSTAN)
World ranking: 3
Wimbledon champion in 2022, Rybakina is aiming for a second Grand Slam title in Australia after coming up just short against Aryna Sabalenka in last year’s Melbourne Park final.
Russia-born Rybakina lifted two WTA 1000 titles at Indian Wells and Rome but the 24-year-old struggled to stay fit, retiring in Dubai, Roland Garros and Cincinnati before withdrawing from the Tokyo Open due to health reasons.
The big-serving Kazakh seems back on track, however, opening her 2024 season at the Brisbane International where she beat Sabalenka to lift her first trophy of the season.
JESSICA PEGULA (UNITED STATES)
World ranking: 5
Pegula closed her 2023 season as runner-up at the WTA Finals, losing only to world number one Iga Swiatek after a perfect group stage and a straight sets semi-final win over U.S. Open champion Coco Gauff.
The 29-year-old American has yet to make much of an impression at the Grand Slams, however, falling at the quarter-final stage six times since 2021 — including the last three Melbourne Park majors.
That has not stopped her believing success will come.
“It’s better to at least keep reaching quarter-finals than not putting myself in those positions,” she had said after her last Grand Slam quarter-final exit at Wimbledon.
“I just have to keep telling myself to put myself in good positions, keep getting better and working on things.”
MARKETA VONDROUSOVA (CZECH REPUBLIC)
World ranking: 7
Vondrousova clinched her maiden Grand Slam at Wimbledon to become the first unseeded player to win the women’s title and the first Czech woman since Petra Kvitova in 2014.
Vondrousova, the 2020 Olympic silver medallist, also made it to the Roland Garros final as an unseeded player in 2019, where she lost to Ash Barty.
After recording her best performance at the U.S. Open, where she reached the quarter-finals, the 24-year-old lefthander will now look to improve her record at Melbourne Park, where she has never progressed past the fourth round.
(Reporting by Janina Nuno Rios in Mexico City; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
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