The WTA rankings are based on a rolling 52-week, cumulative system. A player’s ranking is determined by her results at a maximum of 16 tournaments for singles and are awarded based on how far a player advances in a tournament.
Going into the 2017 season, here are the four players who have underperformed but hold the potential of being placed much higher than their ranking suggests.
Sloane Stephens
Sloane Stephens won the ASB Classic in Auckland last year but had to opt out this year with a recurring foot injury. Stephens hasn’t stepped on the court since the Rio Olympics and it’s pretty obvious her foot hasn’t totally healed as of yet. She is ranked 52nd in the world but that’s not where she belongs and she knows that. Yes, Stephens remains inconsistent and her attitude can sometimes be an issue, but she is still very young, and she is still trying to accept the grind of the tour. When she is playing well, she looks effortless and fabulous to watch. When she isn’t, she looks just as bad and makes fans feel frustrated. It will be interesting to see how Stephens bounces back after a long injury layoff.The key to Stephens will be to be a little more well-rounded than she was last year. We know that she’s good on clay – she was 9-3 on clay – but was only 10-6 on hard courts and 2-1 on grass. She’s still a player on the rise, so it wouldn’t be surprising to see her improve in those other realms but as of now, she’s a bigger threat on clay than the other WTA surfaces.
Sabine Lisicki
You watch Sabine Lisicki play and wonder why she isn’t a Grand Slam winner. Why is she not in the top 10, and why is she so consistently inconsistent? She is known for her monstrous serves and hits the ball flat and hard. Lisicki has the game to truly snatch the racquet from her opponent’s hands. Tennis academy guru Nick Bollettieri once said whether she wins or loses, it has very little to do with the opponent, it’s all about her and not many can say that. She controls her own destiny on the WTA tour.
Anyone with that kind of serve and powerful groundstrokes should be intimidating, dominating and able to churn out wins, week in and week out. Lisicki loses points she shouldn’t, she drops sets she shouldn’t, and she fails against players she shouldn’t. The talented German is ranked 92nd in the world and her tennis career has reached its nadir, but like the old saying goes, the darkest hour is just before the dawn. She was still OK on grass last year – 3-2 – but she needs to improve on clay where she was 3-5 last year and the hard courts where she was 8-12.
Jelena Jankovic
The former World No. 1 had a woeful 2016 and ended the year outside top 50. It was perhaps the lack in confidence and her failure to find consistency that led to a lackluster season. To top that, her shoulder injury didn’t do her any favors and her ranking slipped. It’s tough to play through injuries in tennis as hurt players get exposed quickly.
The Serbian may have been blighted with injury throughout 2016, but she found form in the late-season Asian swing, when she made the finals in Guangzhou and the semifinals in Hong Kong.
Jankovic values every tournament as important for her confidence before the Australian Open. She couldn’t go far in Hobart but she has a wealth of experience to get past tricky customers in major WTA tournaments.
Julia Georges
Ranked No. 56 in the world, Julia Georges is not the most popular German, but every now and then she comes up with performances to remember. In the recently concluded ASB Classic in Auckland, Georges was down 1-6, 0-3 to Caroline Wozniacki, but with some sublime shotmaking, she came back to stun the former No. 1 in three tight sets, 1-6, 6-3, 6-4, and went on to make the semifinals. Georges peaked at No. 15 in the rankings and also has three fourth-round appearances in Melbourne. She may be ranked outside the top 50 on the WTA, but she has the ability to scare as well as beat top players.
Click here to bet on tennis – including all of the major grand slams this season – and many other sports at BetDSI!
