Petra Kvitova and Simona Halep began the season positioned to challenge Serena Williams for the top spot, but neither made great progress this year. Chris Evert says that while Kvitova has the tools to be dominant, the world No. 4 has to yet to prove that she wants it.
At the start of the season Kvitova said she wants to be No. 1, but the two-time Wimbledon champion was unable to reach the semifinals at any of the majors. She did win three titles this year in Sydney, Madrid and New Haven.
The 25-year-old is 1-1 in Singapore after losing to Angelique Kerber and beating Lucie Safarova.
"There is a hunger question: How much do you want it? I see the physical aspects of her, the mono and the asthma, and that has prevented her from playing her best tennis and being in the best shape she can be in, no doubt about it," Evert told TENNIS.com at a press conference in Singapore. "But if you're hungry and want it badly enough, you make it happen. You figure it out. So if it means taking three months off and trying to figure out what's wrong or healing, you do it. You come back with vengeance..."
Evert, who is a WTA Finals Ambassador, also said Halep had a good, but not a fantastic season. The world No. 2 reached one Grand Slam semifinal at the U.S. Open, and won three titles in Shenzhen, Dubai and Indian Wells.
The 24-year-old and top seed was knocked out of the round-robin competition at the WTA Finals after losing to Agnieszka Radwanska on Thursday.
"I don't think she's had a great year, Simona. I think she had a great year last year [in 2014 when she reached the French Open final] and she got to a certain point, level, where she knew she would have to make some subtle changes," Evert said. "At times she's progressed in the sense of I've seen a bigger serve and I've seen more aggressiveness from her. But it's also rattled her base game a little bit more. She making a few more errors and she's getting a little more emotional on the court. So good news, bad news. It's been a year of making those subtle changes, and it's hurt her in certain ways. But maybe that's what she needs, to take two steps back before she takes three steps forward.
"...Hopefully next year she'll settle down a little bit and you'll see the game begin to resonate a little bit more."