Who are the ones to beat in women’s tennis in 2024? Swiatek, Gauff, Sabalenka & Pegula lead the charge

Choose your favourite women’s tennis star and make the case for her in 2024, the Olympic season, and you’re sure you have a strong argument.

The 2023 WTA season wrapped up (for all intents and purposes) on Monday (6 November) as Iga Swiatek claimed her first WTA Finals title in Cancun and re-captured the world No.1 ranking from Aryna Sabalenka.

While Swiatek ends the year on a glowing high, it’s Sabalenka, Coco Gauff and Marketa Vondrousova who each hoisted a Grand Slam trophy this year for the first time, while Jessica Pegula, Ons Jabeur and Elena Rybakina all proved they’re here to stay in 2024.

So how does that set up the coming year, with another four majors and an Olympic title – on clay for the first time in 32 years – on the line? We take a look.

Iga Swiatek: Favoured for Paris 2024

Swiatek, the 22-year-old from Poland, started and ended the year as world No.1, but what happened in between is what may have been most formative for her.

After a dominant 2022 that saw her win nine titles and two majors, she was open about the pressure she faced as world No.1, and fell short of the semi-finals at each of the Australian Open, Wimbledon and US Open.

But she claimed a third Roland-Garros title in four years, and won six titles in total, closing the year on a tear by winning 12 of her 13 final matches and dispatching the field in Cancun, losing a record few 20 games in five matches and looking untouchable in a 6-1, 6-0 final vs. Pegula.

"I learned my lesson and this time I didn't want [being No.1] to have an impact on me," Swiatek said, having lost that ranking to Sabalenka at the US Open. “I just looked forward.”

What’s ahead for her in 2024 is a season where she’ll start as the top-ranked women’s player once again. And while experience is on her side, so is the Olympic surface, with Paris 2024 set to be contested on clay (at Stade Roland-Garros), a first for the Games since Barcelona 1992.

Of note: Swiatek is 49-5 on red clay over the last three seasons.

Coco Gauff: Buoyed by US Open title

Over four years after Gauff had a seismic breakthrough at Wimbledon at age 15, the American captured her first major title – and at her home Slam, no less.

Gauff’s run at the US Open in September came after a first-round crash-out at Wimbledon spurred her to take stock: She hired a new coaching team, changed her mentality and went on to win titles in Washington, D.C., Cincinnati and New York – each one bigger than the last.

Like Swiatek, the 19-year-old has one gear: Forward.

“I tend to look towards the next thing,” she told reporters in Cancun. “[In the off-season], I think we'll have enough time to reflect and be proud of all the things I've done, but also look for improvement on how I can do even better.”

Gauff being “even better” is dangerous for the other top stars, and she’ll like her chances at the Olympics, too: She is the 2022 Roland-Garros runner-up, and has long been outspoken for her affinity for red clay.

Sabalenka, Pegula, Vondrousova & 'the mums'

While Swiatek and Gauff have often grabbed the headlines in 2023, it’s Sabalenka who claimed a lifelong goal of the world No.1 ranking – as well as her first major title at the Australian Open in January, fending off Rybakina in a thrilling championship tilt.

In fact, no one was better or more consistent than Sabalenka at the four Grand Slams in 2023: She went 23-3 across the majors, finishing as runner-up to Gauff in New York and making two more semi-finals.

Pegula and Vondrousova can be lethal in different ways, too, the American beating each of Sabalenka, Gauff and Rybakina before being stopped in the final by a red-hot Iga in Cancun. Her consistency often masks her power, which she made known this past week in an interview, and makes her a threat across all four Slams – and the Olympics.

Vondrousova is the reigning Olympic silver medallist, and with the Tokyo champion Belinda Bencic announcing her pregnancy this week, she will have all eyes on her for what promises to be a strong Czechia team should she qualify. And don’t forget: She’s the 2019 Roland-Garros runner-up... another player who is undeterred by any surface.

What does the crystal tennis ball say for 2024?

Don’t leave out the likes of Rybakina, the 2022 Wimbledon winner who quietly had a forceful, consistent season - or Jabeur, the three-time Slam finallist who appeared to run out of gas in the latter half of the season.

It’s also a season of returns in 2024: Naomi Osaka has promised she’s coming back after giving birth in July; as has two-time major champ and Rio 2016 silver medallist Angelique Kerber. Throw in the already-in-the-making comebacks of fellow mums Caroline Wozniacki and Elina Svitolina and the tour is bursting with storylines – and little ones! – for the coming year.

And the dangerous thing? There's another dozen players who are more than capable to crashing this elite party in 2024.