Since Serena Williams won her record 23rd Grand Slam at the 2017 Australian Open , eight of the next 12 Majors saw first-time champions. Tw...
Since Serena Williams won her record 23rd Grand Slam at the 2017 Australian Open, eight of the next 12 Majors saw first-time champions. Two of these – Naomi Osaka and Bianca Andreescu – beat the 38-year-old in the final.
The underlying narrative is two-pronged. What some see as exciting unpredictability, can also be viewed as a lack of consistency; an inconsistency in women’s tennis that has coincided with the fading star of Williams.
Cut to a few years back when Flavia Pennetta won the 2015 US Open as Williams’ dream of a Calendar Slam was astoundingly ended in the semis. Counting the Italian, there were three straight first-time champions with both Angeliqe Kerber (Australian Open) and Garbine Muguruza (French Open) beating the American superstar in the final.
And turn back the clock a little further, when there were four straight new Grand Slam champions in 2011-’12 – Li Na, Petra Kvitova, Samantha Stosur and Victoria Azarenka.
The storyline was similar. The 2012 and 2016 seasons were seen as a turning point for women’s tennis as fresh champions emerged with relative consistency even as Williams stood firm. The same, however, can’t be said of the post-2017 new champions.
The upheaval in the top echelons of women’s tennis through the last decade...
