Baseline Awards: Best breakthrough performance

Angelique Kerber’s 2016 season got off to a solid start as she reached the final of Brisbane in the first tournament of the year. Who knew, though, what was in the cards only a few weeks after that?

Defeating Serena Williams in a Grand Slam final is a near-Herculean task, but the German pulled it off and rose to a career-high No. 2 in the world.

She didn’t just rest on those accomplishments, as she played magnificent tennis from start to finish. There was a runner-up finish at Wimbledon, where Williams managed to extract a measure of revenge.

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And Kerber won silver at the Olympics, falling to Monica Puig in the title match.

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But then Kerber closed out the Slam season just like she started it, with another title—this time at the US Open.

The Monday after the tournament, she also found herself sitting atop the WTA rankings for the first time. The new world No. 1 seemed to save her best tennis for the biggest tournaments as she wrapped up 2016 with a runner-up appearance at the WTA Finals in Singapore.

Kerber made tremendous strides all through 2016, and there’s still room for more in the months ahead.