What a year it has been for women’s singles tennis — for one young pro in particular. Let’s break down who served up the most success in 2022 for rankings and earnings in the women’s game.
It’s Iga’s world and we’re all just living in it.
Iga Swiatek, the 21-year-old Polish professional tennis player, can officially claim 2022 as hers, ending the year as the No. 1 player in the 2022 WTA year-end singles rankings for the first time in her young career.
With 67 match wins this season, including both titles at The French Open and US Open, Swiatek is on quite the streak (32 weeks and counting) as the world No. 1 — and in the process has amassed the second-most year-end ranking points (11,085) in WTA ranking history. The one-and-only Serena Williams set an all-time record when she earned 13,260 points in 2013.
Talk about good company.
So what has all of this year’s on-the-court success translated to for Swiatek? Try nearly $10 million in prize money.
But Swiatek wasn’t the only women’s singles player who swung hard and secured the bag this season. Let’s take a deeper look at the year-end rankings from the WTA.
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2022 WTA Rankings
In the end, it wasn’t even really close.
Final rankings from the WTA show Swiatek earned more than double that of the second-place finisher — Ons Jabeur (5,055 points) — and more than four times that of 10th-place finisher Simona Halep (2661 points). That’s total domination.
But it doesn’t diminish the rest of the talent in the women’s game today. Swiatek is clearly on the upswing, but the rest of the field is loaded with up-and-comers in the lady’s game.
There’s 28-year-old American Jessica Pegula, whose appearances in the quarterfinals of this year’s Australian Open, US Open, and French Open propelled her up the rankings to No. 3. And of course, we can’t forget about Coco Gauff, whose appearances in the finals at the French Open, and quarterfinals at the US Open, have helped her finish No. 7 in the world.
Let’s have a look at who else is in the top 10 of year-end WTA Rankings.
2022 End-of-Year WTA Rankings
All rankings and data are according to the WTA.
- Iga Swiatek (11085 points)— Won eight tournaments in 2022, including winning six events in a row over a 37-match winning streak.
- Ons Jabeur (5055 points) — Finished the year at No.2, her second consecutive Top 10 finish and up eight from No.10 last year.
- Jessica Pegula (4691 points) — Earned the highest finish by an American since 2016 when Serena Williams finished at No.2.
- Caroline Garcia (4375 points) — Captured her fourth singles title of the year at the WTA Finals.
- Aryna Sabalenka (3925 points) — Earned her third consecutive Top 10 finish, and second consecutive Top 5 finish.
- Maria Sakkari (3871 points) — Reached the semifinal stage seven times in 2022 and finished as runner-up four times.
- Coco Gauff (3646 points) — Became the youngest American to finish the year in the Top 10 since 1999 when Serena Williams finished at No.4 at 18 years, 57 days old.
- Daria Kasatkina (3435 points) — Reached her first Grand Slam semifinal at Roland Garros.
- Veronika Kudermetova (2795 points) — Finished the year in the Top 10 for the first time in her career.
- Simona Halep (2661 points) — Secured her eighth Top 10 finish of her career.
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Who Earned the Most Money in 2022 for Women’s Singles?
Just like in the end-of-year ATP rankings for men’s singles, the list of WTA rankings and prize money are not one and the same. Similar? Yes. But you’ll notice a few earners that aren’t anywhere on the WTA’s Top 10 rankings list.
At the peak of the 2022 WTA prize money list is, of course, Swiatek with $9.8 million in earnings — the bulk of which came from her wins at Flushing Meadows and Roland Garros.
That’s almost double that of Jabeur, who walked away with $4.9 million, and Caroline Garcia, the third-ranked women’s singles player who amassed $3.7 million this year.
A pair of notable names who made good money this season but are not found anywhere in the top 10 rankings include Elena Rybakina, the winner of this year’s Wimbledon who earned a total of $3.6 million this year, and former No. 1 player Ashleigh Barty, winner of the Australian Open who abruptly retired after her victory and totaled $2.3 million for the year.
Let’s have a look at the rest of the field of today’s top earners in women’s singles tennis.
Top 10 Earners in Women’s Tennis in 2022
All rankings and data are according to the WTA.
- 1. Iga Swiatek — $9,875,525
- 2. Ons Jabeur — $4,997,069
- 3. Caroline Garcia — $3,729,317
- 4. Elena Rybakina — $3,613,440
- 5. Jessica Pegula — $3,611,716
- 6. Coco Gauff — $3,051,953
- 7. Maria Sakkari — $2,481,419
- 8. Aryna Sabalenka — $2,461,320
- 9. Ashleigh Barty — $2,289,320
- 10. Simona Halep — $2,253,197
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