It did not come as a surprise when world number one Serena Williams was awarded the Player of the Year honors at the WTA Awards. The announcement was made on Friday, November 22. This is the fifth time that Williams has been given this award [2002, 2008, 2009, 2012, 2013]. The American joins Steffi Graf (eight) and Martina Navratilova (seven) as players who have won the Player of the Year award five or more times.
Serena Williams had a phenomenal 2013 season which saw her a total of 11 WTA titles including two Grand Slam titles (French Open, US Open). She won 78 matches, the most since Kim Clijsters won 90 matches back in 2003. She also accumulated $12,385,572 in prize money, a new WTA record that eclipsed Victoria Azarenka’s haul a year ago ($7,923,920). She became the oldest world number one in WTA history when she reclaimed the rankings summit back in February.
Williams said that her win at the French Open stood out among her achievements this season:
“Well, obviously the French Open was probably the thing that stands out most,” she said. “I really wanted to win that for a number of years now, so that was definitely something exciting. And also being undefeated on clay was pretty exciting too. So my results on clay this year definitely stand out.
“Overall I’ll remember the wins, but I also want to learn from my mistakes so I don’t repeat them.”
The American is now looking forward to the Australian Open 2014 tournament this coming January.
“It’s never too far away,” Williams said. “There will be 127 other players there who have the same thoughts as I have. I hope to be the one standing up at the end, and it’s for sure my next goal, but seeing as I didn’t do as well as I wanted to there the past couple of years, my goal this time is just to go a year in Australia without twisting an ankle. That’s all I’m going to start with.”
The Doubles Team of the Year Award went to Sara Errani and Roberta Vinci of Italy.
