The Master of the year
Garbine Muguruza
Garbine Muguruza became the first Spanish player in history to win the WTA Finals. Muguruza reached four finals during the 2021 season and clinched two more titles in Dubai and Chicago. She finished runner-up in two more finals at the Yarra Valley Classic in Melbourne and Doha.
At the Dubai Duty Free Tennis Championships Muguruza beat Irina Camelia Begu, Amanda Anisimova and Iga Swiatek in straight sets to reach the quarter finals. The Spaniard then came back from a set and a break down to beat Aryna Sabalenka reaching her third semifinal in Dubai. She beat Elise Mertens 6-4 7-6 to reach her second consecutive final before beating Barbora Krejikova 7-6 6-3 in the championship match.
Before this year the only other Spanish player to reach the WTA Finals was Aranxta Sanchez, who lost to Stefi Graf in the championship in 1993. Muguruza beat Indian Wells champion Paula Badosa in an all-Spanish semifinal to reach the tournament final for the first time of her career before beating Anett Kontaveit 6-3 7-5 in the championship final.
Garbine Muguruza: “I am just very happy that I proved to myself once again I can be the “maestro”, like how we say in Spanish. That puts me in a very good position for next year with a good ranking. It’s just a payoff for such a long year. My team and I worked hard. It pays off. It just shows that we are doing the right way”.
The breakthrough of the season
Anett Kontaveit
Anett Kontaveit became the first Estonian player in history to qualify for the WTA Finals after an impressive end of season, in which she won 16 consecutive indoor matches and 26 of her past 28 matches overall.
Kontaveit enjoyed the best season of her career. She won four titles in Cleveland, Ostrava, Moscow and Cluj Napoca and reached three more finals at the Gramphans Open in Melbourne, Eastbourne and at the WTA Finals in Guadalajara. She ended the WTA season with an impressive record of 45 match wins.
At the WTA 250 tournament in Cleveland Kontaveit defeated Katerina Siniakova in the quarter final and Sara Sorribes Tormo in the semifinal to set up a final against Irina Camelia Begu. She beat Begu 7-6 6-4 in the championship match to win the second title of her career.
Kontaveit continued her great season at the Ostrava Open where she beat Olympic champion Belinda Bencic in the quarter final, number 2 seed Petra Kvitova in the semifinal and Maria Sakkari in the final to win he fifth top-20 match in 2021.
After losing to Ons Jabeur in the quarter final at the Chicago Open, Kontaveit beat Garbine Muguruza in the quarter final and Olympic silver medallist Marketa Vondrousova in the semifinal to reach her fifth final of the season at the Kremlin Cup in Moscow. She came back from 4-6 0-4 down to beat Ekaterina Alexandrova 4-6 6-4 7-5 in the final, winning the fourth title of her career.
Kontaveit went on to beat Simona Halep in straight sets to win her fourth title in her sixth final of the season at the Transylvania Open in Cluj Napoca. With this achievement, she moved up to a new career high of world number 8.
At the WTA Finals in Guadalajara Kontaveit lost to Garbine Muguruza in the first round-robin match, but she beat Barbora Krejcikova and Karolina Pliskova in straight sets to reach the semifinal as the first placer in her group. Kontaveit beat Maria Sakkari 6-1 3-6 6-3 in the semifinal to advance to the biggest final of her career.
The Estonian star lost to Muguruza 6-4 6-4 in the final, finishing seventh in the WTA Ranking.
