Serena Williams won the 2010s, who will dominate the next WTA decade?

Sofia Kenin

Age during the next decade: 21-31
WTA ranking now: 14
Career titles: 3

American Sofia Kenin has not yet won a major but could be peaking at the perfect time in terms of the battle to be named player of the decade.

The world number 14 won the WTA award for Most Improved Player in 2019 and has shown enough over the past 12 months to suggest she is among the top candidates to move into the Grand Slam mix and challenge the leading players as early as next year.

Kenin had finished 2018 outside the top 50 and at the end of 2017 she was still outside of the top 100, so she has made swift progress towards the top.

The 21-year-old won three WTA Tour titles and made the final of another event in the 2019 season, having never reached a showpiece match before this year.

She stunned Serena Williams in the third round of the French Open and it took eventual winner Ash Barty to knock her out at the next stage in a three-set battle.

Kenin has WTA Tour wins over Barty and Naomi Osaka to her name in 2019, providing further supporting evidence about the level of her game and temperament.

The one reservation would be that, up to now, her major best was that last-16 run at Roland Garros in this campaign, with no quarterfinal appearance yet.

But if Kenin does make that jump in 2020, the timing would put her in a great spot to have a shot at building a strong Slam tally in the decade of the 2020s, which would make up her prime years from 21 to 31.

An ascendant player at just the right age, making that first breakthrough may be all Sofia Kenin needs in order to kick on and enjoy a decade to remember.