Iga Natalia Swiatek, a professional tennis player from Poland, has been named the 2022 Women’s Tennis Association (WTA) Player of the Year.
This comes after she won two more major titles to her current tally of three.
She topped the WTA rankings for the first time in April and went on to win eight titles during a 37-match winning streak.
After winning her first Grand Slam title at Roland Garros in 2020, the 21-year-old beat out Caroline Garcia, Coco Gauff, Ons Jabeur, Jessica Pegula, and Elena Rybakina in a media vote to win the WTA’s Most Improved Award, and she hasn’t looked back since.
In other categories, Katerina Siniakova and her dependable partner Barbora Krejcikova won the Doubles Team of the Year trophy for the third time, having previously won it in 2018 and 2021.
They won the Australian Open, Wimbledon, and US Open in 2022, while remaining unbeaten in Grand Slam doubles competition.
Although, they were unable to compete at Roland Garros due to Krejcikova’s COVID-19 battle. The Czech team finished the year by reaching the WTA Finals final for the third time, losing to Elise Mertens and Veronika Kudermetova.
Beatriz Haddad Maia was named Most Improved after finishing a career-defining 2022 season ranked inside the Top 20 for the first time.
She won back-to-back grass-court titles in Nottingham and Birmingham before reaching her first WTA 1000 final at the National Bank Open in Toronto.
Zheng Qinwen won Newcomer of the Year after a thrilling first season on the WTA tour. She reached her first WTA 1000 quarterfinal in Toronto and her first Grand Slam fourth-round appearance at Roland Garros, where she upset reigning champion Simona Halep and forced eventual winner Swiatek to a third set.
