Iga Szwiatek from Poland was recognized as the best tennis player of 2023
Ukrainian tennis player Elina Svitolina won the nomination “Comeback of the Year” (Comeback Player of the Year) as part of the annual award WTA Player Awards 2023.
The Ukrainian’s competitors in the fight for the prestigious award were representatives of the Czech Republic Marketa Vondrousova and Karolina Muchova, Xie Shuwei from Taiwan and “neutral” Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova. All of them missed a lot of time over the past year due to injuries or health problems, but returned to the court quite successfully.
The winner was presented on the Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) website as follows:
Elina Svitolina spent 12 months away from the WTA to welcome daughter Sky, born in October 2022, into her family. Svitolina returned to duty in April 2023. Before her pregnancy, Svitolina spent more than 200 consecutive weeks in the top ten and just a month after her long-awaited return to the courts, she won her 17th career title at the WTA tournament in Strasbourg. Her comeback continued with the quarter-finals of Roland Garros before she matched her best Grand Slam performance by reaching the semi-finals at Wimbledon, defeating WTA world number one Iga Swiatek in the process. Within five months, Svitolina had once again rocketed up the WTA rankings and ended the year almost as if she had never left tennis, in 25th place.
Winner in the main category “Player of the Year” from the WTA Player Awards 2023 was the representative of Poland Iga Šwiętek, number one in the world rankings. The best duet couple recognized in 2023 Storm Hunter (Australia) / Elise Mertens (Belgium).
Let us remind you that Svitolina took a break from performing after leaving the US Open 2023 in the third round. It was reported that Svitolina had problems with her foot, which is why she performed at the event with an untreated injury. Elina recently returned to the training process on the court.
Previously, the Ukrainian announced her performance at the Australian Open 2024, and in December she was officially named on the list of participants, along with three other Ukrainians. Elina also intends to take part in the Olympics in Paris next year.
Svitolina will begin the new season at the WTA 250 ASB Classic in Auckland. The competition will take place from January 1 to January 7, 2024. This will be Elina’s first performance in New Zealand.
Source: Sportarena
I’m Rose Brown , a journalist and writer with over 10 years of experience in the news industry. I specialize in covering tennis-related news for Athletistic, a leading sports media website. My writing is highly regarded for its quick turnaround and accuracy, as well as my ability to tell compelling stories about the sport.
