Barty voted Player of Year; Stanford commit ousted

Ashleigh Barty won Wimbledon and, for the third consecutive season, ended the
year at No. 1 . 2019 photo by Harjanto Sumali

   International journalists voted Ashleigh Barty as the WTA Player of the Year for the second time, the organization announced Monday.

   Barty, a 25-year-old Australian, won her second Grand Slam singles title at Wimbledon, led all players with five singles titles and ended the year at No. 1 for the third consecutive season.

   Also winning awards were Barbora Krejcikova and Katerina Siniakova (Doubles Team of the Year), Krejcikova (Most Improved Player), Emma Raducanu (Newcomer of the Year) and Carla Suarez Navarro (Comeback Player of the Year). 

   Krejcikova and Siniakova, Czechs who also were voted as the Doubles Team of the Year in 2018, won their third Grand Slam crown in the French Open and triumphed in the WTA Finals. Siniakova finished the year at No. 1.

   Krejcikova won the first three singles titles of her career, including the French Open, and soared from No. 65 to No. 5 in the year-end rankings.

   Raducanu, now 19, of Great Britain became the first qualifier to win a Grand Slam tournament in the U.S. Open. She did not drop a set in her 10 matches.

   Raducanu, ranked No. 343 at the beginning of 2021, ended the year at No. 19. She lost in the first round in San Jose after, at age 18, becoming the youngest British woman to reach the fourth round at Wimbledon.

   Suarez Navarro, from Spain, overcame Hodgkin's lymphoma to play in five tournaments before retiring at 33. She won only one match, against current No. 10 Ons Jabeur in the first round of the Tokyo Olympics, but extended Sloane Stephens and Barty to three sets at the French Open and Wimbledon, respectively.

   Suarez Navarro captured the doubles title in the 2014 Bank of the West Classic at Stanford with compatriot Garbiñe Muguruza.

   ATP Tour — Northern California products Mackenzie McDonald and Jenson Brooksby were nominated for Comeback Player of the Year and Newcomer of the Year, respectively. Results of the playing voting will be announced this month.

   Both players skyrocketed to the top 60 in the rankings, reached their first ATP final and advanced to the fourth round of a Grand Slam tournament. McDonald underwent hamstring surgery in June 2019.

   Juniors — No. 1 seed Samir Banerjee, a Stanford commit from Basking Ridge, N.J., and No. 14 seed Ethan Quinn, a Georgia signee from Fresno, Calif., lost in the first round of the Orange Bowl boys 18-and-unders on clay in Plantation, Fla.

   Switzerland's Kilian Feldbausch, the runner-up in last week's Eddie Herr International Championships in Bradenton, Fla., ousted Banerjee, the reigning Wimbledon boys singles champion, 6-3, 6-2. Henrique Rocha of Portugal edged Quinn 6-4, 4-6, 7-6 (4).

   Michael Zheng, a Stanford commit from Montville, N.J., advanced with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over Alvaro Guillen Meza of Ecuador. Zheng reached the Eddie Herr doubles final with Benjamin Kittay of Potomac, Md.

   In other opening-round matches:

   —Rebecca Munk Mortensen of Denmark topped No. 16 seed Alexis Blokhina, a Stanford signee from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., 6-3, 4-6, 7-5 in the girls 18s. 

   —No. 15 seed George Lazarov of Bulgaria defeated wild card Rudy Quan of Sacramento, Calif., 7-5, 6-3 in the boys 16s. Quan won the Eddie Herr 16s.

   —Adhithya Ganesan of Clarksburg, Md., and Quan beat Gevorg Mnatsakanyan of Gaithersburg, Md., and Jonathan Soeth of Great Britain 6-2, 6-2 in the boys 16s.