As the 2024 ATP and WTA seasons reach the endpoint, the usual chatter throughout the tennis scene is generally the same. The focus and talking point is always around the length of the season and is it too long? As well as the players and the toll on their bodies.
The same chatter, the same topics but generally speaking zero changes take place on the calendar. It’s a physical and mental challenge of the highest order to make it to the end.
Now is the best time to analyse who has struggled to maintain their high standards with some surprising and not-so-surprising worst tour performers of 2024.
Chris Eubanks:
The big-serving American blasted his way to the quarter-finals of Wimbledon 2023 losing to Medvedev in a match the American looked like winning at certain stages.
Eubanks had finally arrived after six to seven years of grinding and toiling in the minor leagues. He rode the wave to a career-high No.29 ranking, but the wave crashed in 2024, resulting in a disaster for the 28-year-old.
An 11-win 19-loss season has seen Eubanks fall outside the top-100 and back on the Challenger Tour where he has suffered losses in back-to-back weeks to players ranked outside the top-300 and 500.
Season Score - 2/10
Stefanos Tsitsipas: It has been a strange 2024 for the Greek star. It is always a concern when there is more off-court attention than on court - and as such - Tsitsipas' standards have declined.
With a 42–21 win-loss record, Tsitsipas is well short of the magical 50 ATP Tour match wins that the very elite athlete on the tour achieve. He claimed one title this year at the Monte Carlo Masters 1000 where he seems to play his best tennis. It is one of the biggest events on the calendar and Tsitsipas showed that when locked in, his best is still top-five calibre.
But his ranking has dropped from firmly in the top-10 to outside at No.11. This combined with coaching changes, drama with his father and soap opera talk on his dating life has created a large setback for Tsitsipas.
Season Score - 4/10
Cameron Norrie:
After well over five years of tirelessly hustling at the highest level, the style that Norrie must deploy to win matches has caught up with him. It is not pretty to watch and one must wonder how he gets it done. Plenty of fight, toughness, a heavy lefty forehand and unorthodox flat backhand answer that question, but 2024 was a huge step back.
A career-high ranking of No.8 is now a distant memory, as Norrie sits at No.56 and has struggled to get to 17 wins this year. When you play such a physical brand of tennis, eventually it catches up with you. That seems to have started for the Norrie camp.
Watch this space in 2025, but expect Norrie to remain in the 50–100 range moving forward.
Season Score - 3/10
Holger Rune:
It has been a fall from grace for the Danish star. 41 wins and 22 losses on the season combined with major off-court controversy around his team and camp.
Stability is what is needed here and there isn’t any. Rune moved away from his childhood development coach to agree a partnership with Patrick Mouratoglou, not once, but twice. Both experiments were fleeting and very quick. Former Danish player Kenneth Carlson is now in his corner.
However, zero titles this year for such a talent with plenty of competitive fire is not good enough. A drop from the top-five to outside the top-10 at No.13 is a major concern if Rune intends to win major titles. Less soap opera and more substance is required.
Season Score - 4/10
Casper Ruud:
A couple of titles for the Norwegian star in 2024 at Geneva and Barcelona softens the blow for what should be considered an average season.
Ruud has gone from a three-time Grand Slam finalist and a career-high ranking of No.2 to barely holding on to the Top-10.
There is a feeling he sits outside the absolute elite bracket when it comes to possible Slam champions. Grand Slams and Masters 1000 performances are the measuring stick.
The 25-year-old cleans up the ATP 250 level, especially on the clay, and Barcelona was an ATP 500 event, but 2024 has to be considered a down year with too many losses to players outside the Top-30.
In fairness, he has qualified for November's Nitto ATP Finals in Turin, yet we may have seen the best from Ruud with 2025 potentially telling us everything.
Season Score 5–10
Maria Sakkari:
There are no two ways about it. Maria Sakkari suffered a disastrous 2024 season. Only the 21-match wins tell you everything with, of course, zero titles.
At 29 years of age, it just may be the case of tour tiredness and fatigue combined with niggling injuries. Her ranking has dropped to No.31 in the world, miles away from her career high of third. Widely considered a top-10 player, it is a big gap from where she once sat.
She desperately needs to find motivation to discover a new lease of life.
Season Score - 5/10
Ons Jabeur:
A 16-win and 14-loss season for the former world No.2 is a major concern.
Now 30 years of age, her current ranking has slipped to No.41 and with zero titles in 2024 and not seeded in Grand Slams, things will only get tougher. After being a Grand Slam threat for so long, those days seem possibly gone. A couple of demoralising Slam final losses may have taken its toll,and is something not spoken enough in the game. Being so close to the ultimate prize, only to fall agonisingly short.
A crowd favourite, fans will be hoping Jabeur can emotionally bounce back.
Season Score - 3/10
Sloane Stephens:
Since her 2017 US Open win on home soil, it has been a complete nosedive from Stephens.
She has eight WTA Tour titles with one of those coming in 2024, but 19 wins in 41 matches since January is hardly anything to write home about. Losing more matches than you win is never a good sign and a ranking of No.79 is where she now sits.
It is a massive disparity from her career high No.3 in the world. Despite being 31, she is still in contention for automatic entry for Slams,and you would expect Stephens to continue playing. But not reaching 20-match wins season upon season cannot be satisfying for a player who has lifted one of tennis’s biggest trophies.
Season Score - 5/10
Fruhvirtova Sisters:
Linda and Brenda Fruhvirtova burst onto the scene like the throwback child prodigy’s of yesteryear. Full of hype and excitement, the duo were backing up the high expectations with results.
Linda blasted her way to the Australian Open fourth-round in 2023 and the ranking rise that followed was expected to continue. Younger sister Brenda was hot on her heels and it looked like further positive results in the majors would follow.
Linda peaked at No.49 and has fallen off the map since then, currently sitting at No.209. Brenda is 121st in the rankings, down from career-high No.87.
The WTA reality has set in for the girls and they now have to do some serious grinding to get back to where they were, let alone fulfill expectations. Watch this space in 2025.
Season Score - 3/10
Bianca Andreescu:
It is hard to fathom that Andreescu is still only 24 years of age. Time is on her side to fulfil her immense talent, but is time running out with the next generation emerging? The fact that a 10-win campaign sits beside her name is rather perplexing.
Ranked well outside the top-100 at No.164, Andreescu is in danger of being a 'what ever happened to her' kind of athlete. Her top level when in full flight is sensational. A career-high No.4 in the rankings and a US Open Champion, she reeled off a 17-match win streak during her memorable rookie year on tour showing her best level is as good as any female in the sport.
Injuries have always been the whisper out of the Andreescu camp which is disappointing for such a physically gifted athlete. To think that those 17 wins came in three weeks in 2019 and she has all of 10 wins for the entire year. It is a startling stat and one that needs to change for her in 2025 to get her career on track.
Season Score - 2/10
Commentaires