Over the first 10 days of 2017, we're examining the Top 10 players on the ATP and WTA tours—how will they fare during the new season? All of the previews can be found here.
Coming into the 2016 season, Garbine Muguruza was the WTA’s most talked-about player. After starting the previous year ranked just 21st, she had reached her first Grand Slam final, at Wimbledon, and had finished the season on a streak so hot that it took her all the way to No. 3 in the world. The 6-foot Spaniard had the size and power to hit with anyone; was she destined to be the next woman to win her first major title? More than that, was she destined to be the tour’s first post-Serena star?
The answers to those questions were a definitive yes, and a nearly as definitive no. After a slow start to the season, Muguruza caught fire on clay and beat Serena for the French Open title. At last, the leader of a new generation seemed ready to take her place at the top of the women’s game. Muguruza was 22, she was tall and rangy, she was composed under pressure, she could hit her opponents off the court and she was a threat on all surfaces.