To predict which of this year’s four major winners might win the WTA Finals, let’s look to the past, and all of the times the WTA Finals have been held in a year where a different woman won each of the majors.
That situation has happened 17 times since the first WTA Finals in 1972.
That number doesn’t count 2020, when the WTA Finals weren’t held due to the COVID-19 pandemic, though three different women won the three majors that year (Wimbledon was cancelled too). But it does count 1977, when there were five majors held, with two Australian Opens in January and December (and five different women won those five majors).
In terms of which major champion usually wins the WTA Finals in this situation, there’s a clear leader—and second place might surprise you.
WHEN DIFFERENT WOMEN WIN EACH MAJOR, WHICH CHAMPION WINS THE WTA FINALS THAT YEAR?
- Australian Open (2): 1981 (Navratilova), 1998 (Hingis)
- Roland Garros (3): 1990 (Seles), 2019 (Barty), 2023 (Swiatek)
- Wimbledon (6): 1978 (Navratilova), 1979 (Navratilova), 1999 (Davenport), 2004 (Sharapova), 2008 (Venus), 2011 (Kvitova)
- US Open (2): 1977 (Evert), 2014 (Serena)
- None of the above (4): 2005 (Mauresmo), 2017 (Wozniacki), 2018 (Svitolina), 2021 (Muguruza)
So there’s a clear trend towards the Wimbledon champion—which in this year’s case would be Swiatek—coming through at the WTA Finals.
But in terms of recency, only one of the above categories has done it four times this century, and that’s none of the above…
