Tennis News: Aryna Sabalenka, Iga Swiatek and Simona Halep

How would you feel if you were Iga Swiatek? Maybe you wouldn’t care, or possibly shouldn’t care. But if you won the WTA Finals and the French Open and finished on top of the WTA rankings for the second straight year and some other player, in this case, Aryna Sabalenka, beat you out for the Women’s ITF World Champion in 2023, how would you feel?

Not that Aryna Sabalenka had a bad year, of course. She also won a Grand Slam – the Australian Open – and for a short time took the top ranking from Swiatek. Sabalenka also had a win-loss record of 55-14 this year winning three titles and a bit over $8 million in prize money. That is a great year for almost any player.

But Iga Swiatek isn’t just any other player. She was 68-11 for the year and won six titles and nearly $10 million in prize money. She also blasted Sabalenka 6-3 6-2 in the semifinals of the WTA Finals, taking back her No. 1 status.

Aryna Sabalenka gets wrongfully honored, Halep gets miffed at Mouratoglou

Both Aryna Sabalenka and Iga Swiatek are fantastic players, of course. Both could have been worthy of the ITF World Champion honor, but the statistical difference is simply too great in favor of Swiatek. So unless she miffed someone on the ITF council or Sabalenka has a good friend there, it is simply illogical Swiatek would not be World Champion for 2023.

In other news, Simona Halep, currently facing a four-year ban from tennis due to a failed drug test, is really miffed (I guess I get points if I use that word twice in an article?) at former coach Patrick Mouratoglou. Halep told EuroNews that “…my trust is broken a little bit right now, and in the future, I don’t know how it’s going to be, if I can trust again.” This came after a revelation from Mouratoglou that he feels at fault for Halep testing positive.

According to an Instagram post, Mouratoglou said he advised Halep to take some collagen and that the collagen had been contaminated with Roxadustat, which is the banned substance that got Halep in trouble. Maybe Mouratoglou should banned too, then? Assuming what Mouratoglou said is true, Halep is only guilty due to ignorance. But there is likely more to the story.